The problem of sexting among teenagers, How to Avoid It?

According to the latest “The Telegraph” article, the majority of sexting happens among children who have just started dating. These children are willing to share sexually explicit messages with partial and complete nudity with their partners, which in most cases are couples who have just started dating. The problem of sexting is bigger than just teenage hormones, the images and videos and often distributed online as a sign of revenge by as soon as those relationships are over.

Of 667 sexually explicit images found on the internet, 20% appeared to be kids of 15 years and younger. In addition, 93% of images and videos featured young girls rather than boys. This is another reason why sexting is a dangerous problem.

The recent scandalous video featured a girl of 7 years who was standing in her underwear and heavy make-up in front of a camera, she was saying: “I am afraid my mom can see this and if she gets mad, she will delete my account”. This is one of the truly disturbing messages of online predators using little girls online. It is believed that these kids are being blackmailed for some reason.

Not only this is disturbing for adults, but for the children themselves. Kids are being blackmailed by online predators to produce more sexual photos and videos with a threat of the content being distributed and posted on social media websites or sent directly to parents.

Sexting is mostly provided through:

· Text messages

· IM Chats ( Viber, WhatsApp, Skype etc)

· Social media websites (Facebook, Instagram)

· Emails

To protect children from sexting one can talk to a child about possible online dangers, including online predators and sexting. There is also an option of installing special iPhone parental controlapps that allow parents to track and monitor child’s online behavior remotely through PC or personal cell phone. The apps have special personal panels where parents can check all incoming and outgoing messages, call logs, track IM chats and social media websites. In addition all videos and photos taken and downloaded will be available for you as well.

It is important to understand that once photos and videos have been sent with a use of the Internet, there is no option to delete them. Firstly, pictures and videos leave a digital footprint and secondly even if you delete them from your account, they will be still visible for the recipient and in some cases automatically downloaded.

Keep in mind that sexting among underage children is considered illegal. It violates the US law and falls under possession of creation, possession and distribution of children pornography.

:6Jn