Brief Analysis of the Teen Sexting Phenomenon

Nowadays, the modern society witnesses a heated discussion of the teen sexting phenomenon. People start to care about how to balance young people as both criminals and vulnerable subjects in this phenomenon. In the article “Sexting, consent and young people’s ethics: Beyond Megan’s Story”, the author analyzes the ethics problem of young people by discussing people’s reaction to the Australian sexting online ad Megan’s Story. By drawing the attention of the public on the consequence of sexting on young people, the author aims to call for the legal system to adjust the child pornography law to be more practical, as well as warn young people to protect themselves from the harassment of sexting. Furthermore, in the article “Sexting as media production: Rethinking social media and sexuality”, the author Amy chooses a different angle and views sexting as media production, not illegal actions, to highlight the importance of consent and reduce the severity of the penalty. By analyzing the anonymity and girls’ disinhibition of the Internet and mobile phones, the author indicates that the social media makes girls vulnerable to sexting and tempts teenagers to be sexually assertive. By properly regulating the social media, we may reduce the consequence of the sexting. All these points make sense to some degree. Based on these two articles, this paper aims to analyze the sexting phenomenon in three aspects: the causes, the effects, and the possible countermeasures.

To begin with, causes of the teen sexting include teenagers’ psychological change in this period, fast circulation of the high-tech media and improper legal laws. Teenagers, especially in their 16 and 17, have a strong longing for cares and attentions. They always neglect their parents’ warnings and try to express their own personalities and rebellious spirits. In order to draw others’ attentions, they might do some crazy things without considering the consequences, or make dirty jokes of others without considering other people’s contents and feelings. They take this kind of jokes as a way of showing intimacy. Incidents like the Megan’s Story are not rare in schools based on this psychological need. Also, when a relationship ends, one party may show their very private videos to others as revenge. In their adolescent period, teenagers start to be curious about the sexual activity. And the sexting materials on the Internet also tempt teenagers to contact with the naked or semi-naked pictures. Also, with little awareness of the legal penalty of child pornography, teenagers are very interested in the sexting activity, which could both provide them with thrills and attentions. Meanwhile, the high technology provides fast circulation of the sexting. It could broaden the negative effect of sexting to the maximum level. Within a few minute, a sexy picture could be posted on the Internet and viewed by thousands of people. So a tiny joke within friends could break the reputation of a teenager and leave this teenager living in a serious psychological shadow for the rest of his/her life. And one teenager’s sexting activity may influence another teenager who accidentally views the picture. What is more, even though there exists the related child pornography law, it is hard to punish the legal penalty directly on teenagers. As legal scholars Robert Richards and Clay Calvert note, “Indeed, in many of these instances, teens are sending photographs of themselves in a playful manner—a high-tech form of flirting—using a forum that has become synonymous with their generation. Second, the draconian penalties that stem from child pornography convictions can decimate a teenager’s life . . . Finally, the stigma attached to being labeled a child pornographer is lasting” (Richards 35). In this sense, the legal system must be extra careful in handling these cases and the current law seems rather excessive and inappropriate.

In addition, the sexting activity can increase the risk of teenage pregnancy and bring serious psychological damage to the victim. Sexting could increase teenagers’ curiosity of sexual activities and the risk of pregnancy. Amy points out that “In some discussions of sexting, commentators fear that young people’s use of mobile media leads to earlier sex, more sexual activity, and teenage pregnancy” (Hasinoff 454). Teenagers in their adolescence are easy to be affected by sexual pictures and videos. If they are exposed to these nude photographs and videos too early, they could easily lose self-control. Getting pregnant too early will definitely leave a psychological shadow and many practical troubles to teen girls. Moreover, the victim of the sexting has to bear the psychological damage and other people’s criticism and contempt. Sexting itself should not be forbidden, because it helps to increase the intimacy of lovers or friends as long as with the content of everybody appearing in the picture. However, as long as the nude photograph is sent to others without the content of every person appearing in the picture, it could cause serious effect and harassment. As Kath Albury mentions “once something is created in a digital format and then shared, you lose control over who sees it and what they do with it (Albury 464).” As long as one person receives the picture and sends to others or post on the Internet, the chain effect is severe, and you can not stop the fast circulation. Even though the person originally sends the picture may have no bad intention, he/she indirectly and unconsciously contributes to the harassment of the victim appearing on the photograph. And if a nude photograph of a teen girl is posted on the Internet and discussed by everybody around her, she will be so scared that she might refuse to contact with any sexual activity and even the Internet for a long period of time.

Last but not least, there might be some measures to regulate the sexting phenomenon, like proper adjustments to the child pornography law and enough legal education to teenagers. About the child pornography, there are strict laws of penalties in the US. But children under 18 are viewed as unable to give any form of content, so all forms of texting should be subjected to serious penalties regardless of any party’s approval. But if the person against this law is also under 18, should he/she take the serious legal penalty for their jokes? As Levine discusses, “Young people caught sexting risk being charged under the very legislation that is designed to protect them – they are simultaneously framed as both perpetrators and victims” (Levine 2009). If children under 18 are punished according to the law, it may be too serious for teenagers and their lives might be decimated due to their playful jokes. And children should not bear this serious punishment because they haven’t reached the age to take the penalties as adults. If they are not punished, the negative effect of sexting may harass more and more children in schools and gradually it will form a practice in schools. But in order to regulate this phenomenon, the legal intervention should still be supported. The legal system must make some adjustments to regulate the penalty of these special “criminals”. Meanwhile, schools should increase the education of the legal framework to let children be aware of the serious consequence of their actions and the penalty they may face. Lacking of awareness of the related legal regulations is also one of the reasons for this phenomenon. Some feminist scholars view the Megan’s Story as a consequence of bad choice and lacking of self-control. If teenagers are given enough education of the danger of careless sexting and the related legal penalty, the sexting phenomenon might reduce sharply. No matter how rebellious these teenagers are, they still care about their images and other people’s attitude towards them. Girls should especially be taught how to protect themselves for they are more vulnerable to the online predators. The purpose of the law adjustment is not to punish every teenager who has the experience of circulating sexting, but to help teenagers grow in a healthy way and protect them from the harassment of sexting. Teenagers are in a special period when their values of their lives, the society, and the world are forming, and their sexual sense starts to grow mature. So the law adjustment should be very careful, neither harming the psychological health of teenagers nor taking little warning effect. It still needs a long period to adjust the law closely to the reality, but some actions should be taken to regulate this phenomenon.

To sum up, teenagers’ psychological change induces them to join in the sexting activity. The high-tech social media circulates the nude photographs rapidly and broadens the negative effect to the maximum level. The sexting may cause a high risk of teen girls’ pregnancy and leave a severe psychological damage of the victim. The current child pornography law is excessive to punish the teenager. In order to regulate the sexting phenomenon, the legal system must make proper adjustments and related legal education is also necessary. However, there are still some areas that this paper fails to cover, such as how to define if the teenager circulates the sexting with no bad intention or on purpose and whether those people receive or view the nude photograph should also be viewed as “guilty”. It is suggested that further research may concentrate on the change of the related law, related cases, and the regulation of sexting circulation on the Internet.