Discussion:"Sexting" & Self Destructive Society

http://www.ajc.com/lifestyle/sexting-a-shadow-over-939899.html

"A shocked counselor would ..."

(Shocked? Fire her.)

"Students attended an assembly where they heard that if they kept or forwarded those images they could be charged with child pornography — a federal offense"

(Silly beyond comment. We are going to cuff this entire highschool class and lead them all off to federal prison? REALLY?)

"It’s a shadow over her,” the mother said."

(Jail this mother for helping to hype the shadow.)

"“Sexting” is the 21st century version of “you show me yours, I’ll show you mine"

(I seem to remember those days. I don't remember being told I was a criminal or that my friends could be imprisoned or that I would have a shadow over me for the rest of my life.)

I certainly think that children should be supervised online (maybe even closely supervised if that's even possible) but it's the adults I really, really worry about. We are a society being done in by bored, stupid adults.

Keep in mind, the parents gave their kid a phone that I presume was used to take the pictures. Why the phone? For emergencies! (Barf). But yet the same parent is shocked when the child plays "you show me yours, I'll show you mine" with her friends with the help of the phone and a computer.

And further, the wider community of adults, who are also consciously or subconsciously titillated by the thought of the pictures (though they deny it) have to then fall into paroxysms of universal finger pointing and threats left and right of imprisoning the child's friends in order to assuage their OWN guilt at being titillated!

I keep calling for Nathaniel Hawthorne to come back to point the finger where it belongs to be pointed.

Fair use quotes, Atlanta Journal Constitution, this date.

They should take away the cell phones or disable the features that allow sexting.

This should be handled in a 'civil' court type environment with therapy, and community service.

What kind of "therapy" would you administer to these normal teens? Electric shocks to their genitals like in "A Clockwork Orange"? It would be quite abnormal if a teenager was not interested in anatomy and in sex. I would hate to make them abnormal by giving them "therapy".

Moving now from teens to adults.

It IS "disgusting" to the normal adult precisely because the adult is uncomfortable (guilty) about their OWN conscious or subconscious titillation over the matter. In other words, they are also "turned on" by it but because such thoughts must be immedately suppressed when they arise, the normal adult reacts with guilt expressed as great vengenece against the "wrongdoers". The source of the "witch hunt" mentality always comes from within as a way to assuage and lessen the mental guilt of the individual.

This is the larger source of guilt that gets writ large in these modern day witch hunts, the smaller source of guilt comes when the stupid adult realizes how unwise it was to give the kid a cell phone w/ photographic capacity to begin with.

I will dispute to the cows come in that these phones are so necessary. I think the new fangled phones are what most of the kids use to take the pictures. There are very few places in America where a kid can't get help if he's in an emergency. Most of these phones are simply unnecessary. (I understand that some of these pics also come from webcams which begs the same question).

But why is a webcam necessary to a child? To talk to granny so granny can see the kids? Send the old coot a card and be done with her. <If there are grandparents reading this, my apologies, lol>

I think the mature adult (mature parent) will realize that it's normal for children and teenagers to do some anatomical and even (hopefully mild) sexual exploration and the responsible adult will take it as their responsibility to see that their child is not provided with the technology to make a permanent record of it.

It's the permanent record by way of a picture or a video on the www that is the difference in this new age.

You are exactly right, the child does need counseling about the www and posting these photographs and things hither and tither and how they can travel on the web.

It wouldn't hurt to give these parents some counseling as well (call it "anti-hysteria counseling" if you will) and I'm sure Crow would agree with that.

It gripes me to no end that I have to treat him as an equal and here I have 8 years of seminary and finishing school at the Pontifical University in Rome.

As far as I can tell, he has no Bible education but he convinced some other hillbilly preachers to lay their hands on his head and ordain him.