How Do You Handle Inappropriate Text Messages?

• Welcome back to "Moms Talk," a weekly Patch feature designed to reach out to moms and families. RiverDell Patch invites you to grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start this week's conversation:

How Do You Handle Inappropriate Text Messages?

Recently, the New Jersey Assembly voted on a bill that would allow for more lenient punishments for teens caught "sexting." Sexting is the sending of nude, partially nude or sexually suggestive material via text. First time offenders would be offered entry into a diversionary program under the proposed law.

Many teens don't realize that passing on an image of a peer who is even partially nude can be considered distribution of child pornography and it comes with a heavy penalty.

Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt co-sponsored the bill that recently passed in the assembly. She was quoted in New Jersey Newsroom saying that “juveniles do stupid things, and with the click of a switch, they could send [a sexually explicit picture] to somebody, and that particular picture could be sent off to many other people with an additional click.”

What do you think of the proposed changes to the penalties for sexting? And how would you--or have you--handled the discovery of inappropriate text messages on your child's phone?