20 Percent of Teens Partake in 'Sexting': Should They Face Charges?

by SodaHead Living Posted 2012/06/15 18:00:00

Related Topics: Teens, Sexting, Kids, High School, Student, School, State, Explicit, Sexual, Technology, Party, students, teenagers, Pictures

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	Yes	407 votes	28%
	No	1,041 votes	72%

Whatever the latest technology is, teenagers will use it to get up to no good. But that doesn't make it any less alarming that nearly 20 percent of high school students partake in sexting, according to a new study.

Donald Strassberg, of the University of Utah, found that nearly 20 percent of high school students (18 percent of males, 17 percent of females) admitted to having sent a sexually explicit image on their cellphone. Almost twice as many said they had received a sexual image on their phone (50 percent of males, 31 percent of females), LiveScience reports.

And here's the really scary part: About 25 percent confessed that when they received a sexually explicit image, they forwarded it to others. Plus, more than 8 percent said they had sent a sexually explicit photo that they took of someone else to a third party.

But here's the thing, kids: You can get into big trouble for doing this. In many states, sending or receiving nude pictures of someone under 18 (including yourself) could put you at risk of facing child pornography charges. Do you think teens who sext should face charges?

+42

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Twinkle 2012/06/15 19:30:13 (edited)

No

+21
It's their life if someone else sees it and it not their boyfriend or girlfriend or whoever who cares not my life.

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More polls by SodaHead Living

iHeartC... to Kozmo 2012/06/21 03:30:26

It could, but this is "teens" we're talking about, not creepy people and pedo

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Kozmo to iHeartC... 2012/06/21 06:43:49

Plenty of folks are alreadly psychopaths at this age, bertter to catxch them soon.

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lea_bil... to iHeartC... 2012/10/15 15:45:41

But teens are now being classified as "creepy people and pedo's" FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES, because of this law. It needs to be changed. Raging hormones are natural, not criminal!

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lea_bil... to iHeartC... 2012/10/15 15:44:06

Guess I am paranoid too, you know that old saying, "give them an inch and they will take a mile". I think we have a LOT more to worry about with the government taking control over our lives than teens acting on hormones gone wild.

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Ed 2012/06/18 20:04:47

Yes

+1
Inasmuch as anyone else does, yes.

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wes 2012/06/18 19:53:36

Yes

Under 18. Of course teens, parents that don't care and old people that are pissed because they're not getting it are going to vote 'No', then you have those freedom of speech people that don't understand why you just can't go around saying whatever you want, whenever you want.....teenagers need to focus on math and english, if you look at the average intelligence of teenage sudents compared to 30 years ago, sad enough, eigth grade dropouts back then were actually smarter than high school graduates are today, blame the educational system all you want, sexting isn't making them any smarter..........

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Lynn Gi... to wes 2012/06/18 20:19:53

+1
"teenagers need to focus on math and english"??? You must be joking. You sound like someone who was never a teenager yourself. Teens think about sex non stop because their bodies are telling them to have it. They are only doing what God/The Creator programmed them to do. Criminalizing that behavior is only filling up our prisons with people who didn't hurt anyone, and it's making money for all the lawmakers out there...

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Gabriel... to Lynn Gi... 2012/06/18 21:22:31

+3
Exactly

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wes to Lynn Gi... 2012/06/19 20:39:33

Naw, was never a teenager, so I guess I can't speak on that. I'd like to believe that lots of people aren't sexting and are going to find their way through life somehow.....

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lea_bil... to Lynn Gi... 2012/10/15 15:46:38

Brilliantly put!!!

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sasha to wes 2012/06/18 20:33:52

Well sexting is also not the only reason for kids being unintelligent...there's a lot of factors that play into that.

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wes to sasha 2012/06/19 20:36:54

Didn't say it was the only reason, just said it certainly isn't helping........and I'm sure there are other bad habits that socially accompany this one.......

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El Prez to wes 2012/06/18 20:40:11

+1
AND you are an example of the greatness of our former systems? You are ill informed and spreading stupid lies. There are a great many very intelligent teens and they came out of this system. You want to tear down anything that's going on now to harken back to a time that never existed. I have lived over 70 years and there are many things that are far better now that were available years ago. Grow up or shut up.

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wes to El Prez 2012/06/19 20:35:32

I can honestly say "Yes", I speak from first hand exposure and experience, I guarantee you the intelligent ones aren't wasting their time 'sexting'. I'm not about tearing down success, more about trying to re-establish a moral majority. You, obviously are the old man that's not getting it, I'm not shutting up and another ideal I'm certainly advocating, is that you're either green and growing or ripe and rotting, over 70 years old you said? Sounds like you've already given up...........

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El Prez to wes 2012/06/20 19:45:42

Given up nothing. I am as active mentally today as I ever was. You are neither moral or the majority, that has been proven over and over. I did not say I approved or wanted kids to be sexting but you are not going to stop them with your morals and rules. Naked people are all around you, under their clothes. Kids will experiment, many times to their detriment but hopefully something is learned. The more rules and laws we try to make about people's personal behavior the more rule breakers and law breakers we make. This is a matter of taste, not morals. Your morals are for yourself not to judge others, unless they are doing harm to others. We obviously disagree and are not going to persuade each other to change, just drop it.

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wes to El Prez 2012/06/20 21:33:22

You drop it, I'm just getting started, I've got 1,096 points to go to get to the next level! First, how do you know I'm not moral or the majority, and by whose standard, yours? So if we just let them do what they want, they learn all on their own not to do it? Someone has to set a standard and in our society in order to maintain any level of decency, common courtesy and respect towards others, let alone self respect, there has to be consequences for people to learn and stop their socially unacceptable behavior. If it wasn't an issue of concern, there wouldn't be a story here now would there? You sound more like an Ostrich the more I read and I'm willing to bet you look like one too, and you know what they say, if it looks like an Ostrich and sounds like an Ostrich....or a Duck, whatever the case may be........

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Dale G to El Prez 2012/06/26 21:17:00

Oh, please. You pontificate behind a decades-old picture of Peter Graves and want us to think you're credible? Take a course in logical thinking, then come back and say something intelligent.

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El Prez to Dale G 2012/06/26 21:21:44

I am at least as credible as you are and I think we are just at maximum oppisites of the scale on this question. Logical thinking is what I prefer. I don't believe I am getting it from you and would not accept you as a teacher. I have nothing further to offer on the subject., the field is your, I am through.

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Dale G to El Prez 2012/07/03 03:58:47

Would help if you could spell simple words. *Sticking fork in you, because you admit you're DONE! lol

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El Prez to Dale G 2012/07/03 21:52:05

Now you want to be my tutor. Is there no end to your talent? You are correct sir. I am done talking to you. Farewell!!!

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Dale G to El Prez 2012/07/04 22:13:17

Couldn't resist? Could you?? Logic is NOT your strong suit.

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El Prez to Dale G 2012/07/08 04:05:49

Your logic is not logic but wasted prejudicial nonsense that you parade out as "logic". Done and done.

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Dale G to El Prez 2012/07/08 15:43:28

Yeah, right. You're just a petulant child who has to have the last word. Loser. Looking forward to your next set of puerile insults.

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El Prez to Dale G 2012/07/09 20:06:11

Good, here they are. We have taken this very limited interest subject way too far. I just don't give a sh[t any more.

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Dale G to El Prez 2012/07/10 19:26:13

THEN WHY DO YOU KEEP REPLYING? Hmmmmmm????

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El Prez to Dale G 2012/07/11 06:56:11

Just to annoy your dumb ass!!!

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Dale G to El Prez 2012/07/11 20:10:37

I think it's more the other way around LMFAO at you.

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El Prez to Dale G 2012/07/12 17:41:29

Then we can keep it up for as long as you want. However, we could get back on the subject. I still don't believe these people should be arrested.

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Dale G to El Prez 2012/07/16 21:44:24

+1
What's funny is that's the part we agree on. lol

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El Prez to Dale G 2012/07/17 18:19:56

+1
So what's the beef? This is a great example of most political arguments today. People are talking past each other, not to each other. Maybe we will become the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird of the Sodahead league. You can be Larry. If we agree on the basis of the dispute, the detasils of our personal ideas is irrelevant in this case. Do you suppose that is what is happening in Washington? Each side is so deeply engrossed in it's "principal idea" they are missing the points on which they could agree and keep the business of the country going, i.e. infrastructure etc.

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Kenneth Huang 2012/06/18 19:45:23

No

+2
Child pornography - what a joke.

1. Nudity does not equal sex, so a picture cannot be considered pornography by the mere fact of it showing someone naked.

2. These pictures are sent out by one's free will (at least initially). Limiting it would be limiting freedom of speech.

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Ed to Kenneth... 2012/06/18 20:10:16

+1
Minors are not afforded the same rights as adults, especially when it come to issues that could endanger health or safety. It's just the way it is. Kids do not always make the best or wisest decisions as they do not have the experience in life to help them do so. It why there is an 'age of consent' or majority. Adults often don't do any better, but the theory is that they should and can protect/look out for themselves.

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Kenneth... to Ed 2012/06/20 20:22:54

Are anyone's health and safety endangered by sexting, besides the person doing the sexting? Is it government's job to clamp down on people's personal choices?

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Spider to Kenneth... 2012/06/18 21:31:21

+1
I appreciate that sentiment. I am not aroused by pictures of anything. I personally find the adult female figure to be the most attractive, but just the sight is not ever any more than something akin to a beautiful landscape. Making these images taboo I believe does more harm than good. Once they are no longer taboo, there is no longer anything to protect as people will quickly become desensitized and lose intrest. Having them taboo only generates profit.

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lea_bil... to Spider 2012/10/15 15:50:09

Well put!!

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laydeelapis 2012/06/18 19:44:34
Portholus 2012/06/18 19:40:53

Yes

+1
Time to give them that learning lesson. Sending a nude picture of someone under the age of 18 is considered child pornography and is punishable by the law.

All those that are saying no would also say it is alright for two children to have (what they consider to be ) consentual sex yet if things go wrong, the guy can be charged with statuatory rape of a minor and jailed.

We have taken common sense out of the picture for far too long. Common sense says do not do it and that it is wrong. Wake up people.

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Kenneth... to Portholus 2012/06/18 19:46:48 (edited)

+2
Common sense says that we should prosecute children who willingly send out naked pictures of themselves?

Okay...

What crime is involved here? Who are they hurting by doing this (besides possibly themselves)?

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Christo... to Portholus 2012/06/18 19:51:28

+3
You are absolutely right, common sense s gone, for instance, the common sense that a simple picture of a naked child under the age of 18 IS NOT pornography. Ever take a naked baby picture or a picture of your kids in the tub? Or are you one of those adults that is a pedophile until proven otherwise?

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lea_bil... to Portholus 2012/10/15 15:53:47

Punishing teens for laws that are supposed to protect them from adult predators, IS NOT THE ANSWER!! Common sense says that teens are being punished for being sexual beings, a NORMAL part of the cycle of life, NOT something that should require them to have their entire future destroyed over.

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