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Teen sexting is an overblown moral panic, according to a new study
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- b_tterc_p 7y agoThe question appears to ask about sending sexually explicit imagery. I think that would catch a lot of people who have exchanged something pornographic but not of themselves or people they know.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago> Sexting was defined for respondents in the survey as “when someone takes a naked or semi-naked (explicit) picture or video of themselves, usually using their phone, and sends it to some-one else. The image is called a ‘sext’.”
- celticmusic 7y agohow did they ask the question? Because that's not sexting to me. sexting to me is literally just talking naughty in explicit ways. Part of that foreplay can be sending images, but I suspect most people don't limit sexting to strictly the sending and receiving of images. Or maybe I'm just old, who knows.
- GuiA 7y agoHas there ever been a widespread, harmful teen phenomenon that wasn’t an overblown moral panic? Whether it’s tidepods, sexting, or fortnite bullying, it seems like journalists and politicians would rather focus their energy on this kind of nonsense than actual concerns (proper sex education comes to mind).
- neom 7y agoVaping is one I'd like to see us put the kibosh on, however.
- justforyou 7y agoVape Panic: more vestigal puritanical nonsense hysteria distraction.
- mastratton3 7y agoexcept it does carry actual health risks?
- chachachoney 7y agoIf health risks are the concern the focus should be on harm reduction.
- AstralStorm 7y agoThen the question is if studying efficacy of harm reduction methods including bans or age limits or wide educational campaigns, monitoring of quality or other measures. But moral panic wants none of that.
- on_and_off 7y agoFor real .. it has wiped away years of progress in teen smoking (kids starting to vape are then 4 times more likely to start smoking cigarettes as well).
- Nasrudith 7y agoAgreed - it is probably slightly less harmful than smoking barring exploding batteries but is still a clear case of nicotine merchants being pieces of shit about "not advertising carcinogens". It is a cliche but they are way better off not starting in the first place.
- ksaj 7y agoRemember 80's metal? It wasn't evil enough until some religious nuts started playing the songs backward and heard what they tried really hard to hear. Then it leaked to pop and even mor songs. Every generation freaks out about something.
- justforyou 7y agoThe satanic panic wasn't confined to heavy metal lyrics. The same opportuniatic zealotry also led to misinterpretation of hypnosis in clinical settings which ruined the lives of innocent daycare workers and scrambling the lives of children subjected to the practice. (and then there's the whole Dungeons and Dragons thing...)
- Nasrudith 7y agoIn all seriousness yes but only for stuff society approved of and encouraged anyway like working in unsafe factories or serving in wars.
- fatnoah 7y ago>About 14% of middle and high school students reported getting a sexually explicit image from someone they were dating, while 11% said they sent one. Around 14% of respondents said they had gotten a sexually explicit image from someone they weren’t romantically involved with. It's interesting how facts are used. The above 14% statistics are presented as a way of saying that there's not really a problem. After all, if only 1 in 7 kids is sending explicit imagery, it's not a big problem, right? Putting it another way would be that 1 in 7 teens commits felony possession or distribution of child porn. That's how law enforcement views it in some states! My son is 11, and we haven't broached this specific topic, but we do consistently remind him that he should treat any electronic communication as if he expected it to become public.
- i_am_proteus 7y agoAm I the only one who sees this as kids today using the iPhone for the same thing we used to use the Polaroid for? The technology has changed, but adolescent behavior hasn't.
- jariel 7y agoYou did not use your polaroid to take naked pics and send them to friends. Moreover, those polaroids were not viewable by the entire world on the internet.
- mikepurvis 7y agoA 4" square blurry Polaroid picture that can be shown to a select few friends and eventually lost or destroyed has nothing to do with a high resolution image that is trivially forwarded to the entire school by the recipient, acquired via hacking or social engineering, and can be manipulated with photoshop.
- jseliger 7y agoThis thing that the doer perceives as harmless could be harmful. How will you know it's harmful? Because we arrest you for doing it! That's how you know it's harmful, because of the consequences we impose.
- inanutshellus 7y agoClickbait junk. Conclusion akin to "Drinking and driving probably okay usually".
- nerdponx 7y agoI don't understand this. Are you equating teen sexting to drinking and driving?
- paulddraper 7y agoThe article only assessed the prevalence, not the consequences, of sexting and then concluded that panic is unjustified. That can make for a poor conclusion; e.g. concluding that panic over teen drunk driving is unjustified, because <10% of teens have done it. I don't think OP means to say they're the same, just means to illustrate a flaw in the argument.
- inanutshellus 7y agoThe article essentially said "because sexting probably won't end in extortion, parents should STFU so I can see nekkid pix." ... Which I likened to another discouraged activity that "usually goes okay" and yet is ALSO clearly "not okay".
- ceejayoz 7y agoThe big risk of sexting seems to be idiot prosecutors going after kids for it being technically production and distribution of child pornography, leading to cases where the victims are also the perpetrators. https://www.aclu.org/blog/juvenile-justice/minnesota-prosecutor-charges-sexting-teenage-girl-child-pornography https://www.aclu.org/blog/juvenile-justice/minnesota-prosecu... It becomes particularly baffling that you can be old enough to consent to sex in some states, but not old enough to consent to a naked selfie. https://lacrossetribune.com/news/sexting-makes-minors-simultaneously-victims-and-perpetrators-of-child-porn/article_8ee303e2-5f39-54b8-823b-ff8cdfc29df6.html https://lacrossetribune.com/news/sexting-makes-minors-simult...
- tlb 7y agoIf a study says something is overblown, check to see if it provides a correct level of blown-ness or a threshold for something to be a reasonable moral panic. If not, they haven't provided a falsifiable hypothesis. In this case, they have a survey with numbers of how many teens sext. What numbers would have resulted in a different conclusion? To me, "18% of 15-year-olds reporting that they sext" seems like a lot of people doing something extremely dangerous.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoThe official press release is even worse about this. It leads off with "The good news is that adolescent "sexting" is not at epidemic levels as reported in some media headlines". 18% is epidemic levels. Also of interest in the press release: > Among those students who were asked to send a sext by someone who was not a current romantic partner, only 43 percent complied. Assuming that's 43% of the people who admit to participating in sexting in the first place... this still seems shockingly high. "Only" 43 percent? press release: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/fau-nso071719.php https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/fau-nso07171... SciHub: http://sci-hub.tw/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-1449-y http://sci-hub.tw/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/...
- amluto 7y agoIs Sci-Hub actually expected to work on mobile? It seems to just redirect to localhost.
- tomcam 7y agoThe second link was malformed. Here is a working version: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-1449-y https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-1449-y
- thaumasiotes 7y agoNo, the second link was not malformed. It works and it is like that intentionally. My link shows the paper. Your link will sell the paper for $40.
- PaulHoule 7y agoWhen I think of sexting I think of baby boomers like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Weiner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Weiner the teens I know today smoke pot more than they smoke tobacco and they smoke pot less than when I was growing up. As much as older folks like to fantasize that young people do it like bunnies, I think the issue with kids today is that they aren't going to have sex enough to reproduce themselves,
- paulddraper 7y ago> I think the issue with kids today is that they aren't going to have sex enough to reproduce themselves, Birth rates might be a problem, but I don't think the amount of sexual acts is the limited factor.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- duxup 7y agoWhat is the measurement of "overblown"? >Overall, approximately 13% of students reported that they had sent a sext, while 18.5% had received a sext. About one-third of those who sext had done it just one time. Perhaps people who are concerned would find those numbers concerning? If that is true... then is it "overblown"?
- AstralStorm 7y agoIt depends on whether it causes harm and degree thereof. Some people love black and white thinking...
- thaumasiotes 7y ago> Other surprises: > Teens who identified as not straight in the survey were almost twice as likely to engage in sexting as their heterosexual counterparts. This shouldn't have been called a surprise, and should have been broken down by gender. Gay men indulge in much more sexual behavior than straight men do, because they can. Lesbians are not known for this. The study intentionally threw this data away: > The clear majority of the sample said they were heterosexual (92.8%), while 0.7% said they were lesbian, 0.5% said they were gay, 2.8% said they were bisexual, 2.3% said they were questioning, and the remaining 0.9% selected “other” as a response choice. These responses were dichotomized where 1 = heterosexual and 2 = non-heterosexual.
- mises 7y agoThis is a bit of a controversial comment, but I'll try to keep it objective. I think part of this might be cultural? Maybe there's something about the "gay subculture" that encourages this? I'm no expert; some one more involved might be able to comment, but that's the external perception, any way. I think the other part might be that the type of youth who "experiment" might have more promiscuous tendencies, leading to a higher incidence.
- AstralStorm 7y agoPerhaps there is a difference. Why is it worth looking into? Why do you use a loaded word like "promiscuous" instead of plain "sexually active"?
- Nasrudith 7y agoReally even if teen sexting was ubiquitous it would still be an overblown moral panic as the law continues to insist on things which just aren't true - like it makes any sense to have the victim and victimizer be the same person. I am sure everyone who grew up with the internet knows the 18+ restriction is a joke, widely flouted, and there were no benefits from actually obeying it but it is taboo to suggest considering changes as most would rather not think about that subject at all and are suspicious of those who do. And those who grew up before likely knew of secret stashes or "poor man's alternatives". Any member of Congress who proposes reform would fear torpedoing their reputation.