"Sexting" is the stupid word du jour I just discovered in this NPR report. It means young teens sending each other nekkid photos of themselves on their cell phones. These photos may or may not be intended to be sexually arousing; in this story, it was a girl who exchanged a side view pic in the shower with a platonic girlfriend.
What do we think about this? Honestly, I think it's a little tempest teapotty. Yes, a kid should know that a nude photo, once sent, is no longer in their control. Yes, it's gonna suck if that photo is passed around the football team, largely because it means your trust has been broken. Yes, it's gonna suck when the principal finds a copy of it in his mailbox and calls your mom. Yes, being a teenager sucks for precisely these kind of social reasons.
But I have to wonder about some of the comments wailing that this is going to ruin a child's chances of getting into college, getting a job or getting on with her life. It seems to me that if this is a widespread enough problem to really worry about as a society (as opposed to worrying about your specific kid and handling it by, I don't know, not giving them a camera phone until they're old enough to handle it responsibly!), then it seems like that very widespreadness would provide its own protection. Sure, Brooke's naked picture might be shocking to a Googling college admissions officer. But when it's Brooke's and Sean's and Maddison's and Kyle's and Morgan's...well, then, doesn't it just become something stupid you did as a kid that's unfortunate, but not crippling?
I guess I'm sort of analogizing to drug use. 20 years ago, smoking pot was such a big deal that Clinton had to say he didn't inhale. Now we've got a President who freely admits to not only using pot but cocaine. Still in the past, of course. It'll be at least another 20 years before we have an openly currently pot smoking President, but it's a sign that these mores do indeed change.
What do you think? Are these "sexters" committing the crime of the century to mar their Permanent Files forever, or just kids being kids?