Categories: Arts

The sexting scare

Though no ‘epidemic,’ it raises big issues for parents and the law

by Anne Kingston on Thursday, March 12, 2009 9:00am - 20 Comments

In Canada, it’s not illegal for two teenagers under the age of 18 to carry naked photographs of one another, provided it’s for private viewing only. “The Supreme Court says that minors can possess sexual images of themselves and others in consensual activity, but when it’s distributed, it becomes child pornography,” explains Toronto criminal lawyer Frank Addario. “The bright line between harmless and criminal,” he says, “is whether the photo depicts the nakedness for a sexual purpose. If you have an image of a naked teen zipping around the Internet, a police officer somewhere is going to see it and lay a charge.” And that charge, he says, would be against the minor who distributed it, not the minor who’d created the photograph.

Boyko says her colleagues have debated how they’d handle a sexting complaint, which raises thorny questions: “Do we really want to charge a child for distribution or possession of child porn?” she asks. “We’d have to look at the circumstances, to see if the situation was abusive. In some cases it might be charges had to be laid, in others that it’s just a lesson.” Teaching a lesson is what U.S. authorities are trying to do, though charging a child as a sexual offender is a harsh remedy with lifelong implications.

Durham believes the conversation about sexting is an important one, even though she questions whether it’s as common as reports suggest. The media focus is useful, she says: “It’s raising interesting legal questions about how, as a society, we should deal with the impacts of new technologies on our lives, and on kids’ lives in particular.”

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  • TobyornotToby

    Young people are showing each other their naked bodies! When did that ever happen before?

  • hsr0601

    A simple advisory e-massage from an outsider altered their behaviors by about 40 percent, if so, how effective their parents’ close attention and care will be ?

  • Bill Simpson

    As usual, the US justice system is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Being categorized as a sex offender in the States can land young people in a nightmarish situation, making it impossible to live and work. Teenagers have had their lives ruined as the result of underage but consensual sex. This “sexting” is often in the same category.

  • anem

    What did they think would happen if they gave a bunch of hormonal teens a compact camera?

  • Larry Lauzon

    I am sorry but these teens are showing normal sexual exploration, unfortunately when we did it pre 21st century , there wasn’t a permanent record or an easy distribution method. We did the same thing in sleep overs, or down in the rec room or some other quiet and hidden place. What parents today have to realize is that if your going to give your teenager or preteen a camera phone, then you must explain to your child what is appropriate and any photo they take of themselves can easily be passed around by one of their immature friends. Not being ashamed of their bodies is not a bad thing, unfortunately there are those in our community who think that what their sick sense of self should be applied to society as a whole. It is this attitude that produces pedophiles and those that would exploit children. We push sexuality at children through MTV and even children’s programming, but yet are afraid to teach them about their sexuality in schools because these busy bodies insist it is the parents right to teach this, unfortunately many parents aren’t equipped to teach their children or they wait until it is too late. I have seen second graders on there way to school in outfits more appropriate to a hooker than a young girl in the second grade. The parents let them out the door dressed like this and the schools for allowing such attire. Before we could ruin a reputation by word of mouth, now the Internet can do it in an instant, young people are going to experiment with sex, what they need to taught is the permanence of a photo and even if they are sharing with a boyfriend or girlfriend, the possibility is that the picture will go farther than the intended audience.

  • onsecondthought

    Putting a cell phone with a camera into the hands of a majority of teenagers and expecting they will NOT be used to take, at a minimum, candid snaps – at a maximum, explicit sexual photos/movies – is beyond naive. It’s wilful blindness.

    Given that relationships at that age are intrinsically temporary, and given that breakups at that age are frequently high drama affairs, the expectation that a portion (at least) of such photos will be distributed for spite – if for no other reason – is pretty much a certainty.

    So what do we do about it? Here’s a thought: how about we do nothing about it at all. The world will not come to an end. The sun will come up – it will be bright, it will get dark, people will sleep. Then it will happen all over again the next day, too. In the end, not a big deal. If they were 18, not a crime. But one of them was seventeen so we should send somebody to jail? Come on.

    This is the problem with treating adolescents – who are legally permitted to consent to having sex – as “children”. They aren’t children under the law and have never been treated in that fashion in Canada. They are not children; they are adolescents. There is a significant difference between the two.

    Would I be seething about it if it was my daughter? Sure I would. Would I be hopping mad about it if it was *your daughter*? To be honest, no.

    The article quotes the SCC decision in R. v. Sharpe as authority for drawing a bright line between two teens consenting to take sexual photographs of themselves and their committing a crime by showing those photos to somebody else. R. v. Sharpe was not a case that had such facts. Moreover, R. v. Sharpe was decided before cell phone cameras had become ubiquitous amongst teens. Like all decisions of our courts made in the absence of real facts and circumstances, it’s obiter dicta and applies only to the facts which were before the court at the time.

    Let’s wait until the facts are actually before a court before we rev up the engine of the Crown and use R v. Sharpe to saddle some ill-advised, broken-hearted teen with a criminal record. We’ve got bigger problems in our society to deal with, don’t we?

  • PThomas

    I think the fact that every Tom, Dick and Jane has a cell phone is ridiculous. Seeing kids walk around with their faces so tuned to texting, they can’t even be considerate enough to put it away. As a parent, my child IF I ever chose to give her a cell phone, would only have numbers programmed to reach me if she needed to. Otherwise, she could communicate with her friends the old fashion way…actually talking to them face to face, calling them on the phone at home, or using a pay phone.
    I think the art of actually TALKING to people is going by the wayside and we are raising a generation of social kids who will have no idea how to actual SPEAK to people.
    This whole sexting thing was just bound to be the next step when you give kids something/tools they are not equipped and mature enough to handle.

    • DKenney

      PThomas has his/her head in the sand if they think that just programming his/her own numbers into the kids phone will prevent them from calling their friends. PThomas should go out and see how many pay phones still exist (pay phones loose money for phone companies since the proliferation of cell phones).

      The responsible thing would be to discuss the proper use of a cell phone, the proper etiquette. Teach them when it is appropriate to use the phone, what conversations and when should be held. Explain that the pictures taken will last forever. And that anything sent via test, consider it never to be private.

      You state that it was bound to happen, sexting. I say to you, make kids aware of the tools that they have. Discuss, yes, actually speak, to your kids. You cannot control everything they do, but if you have explained it to them, then there is the possibility that they will think before acting. By us acting as responsible adults, we can raise responsible children.

    • wayne moores

      Here’s a radical idea, DONT GET THEM ONE. PERIOD. Has the whole world lost it’s mind? We somehow managed withour cell phones 20 years ago. If a teenager wants a cell phone or car let them pay for it themselves. Let them get a job. It’s surprising how work and resposibilities turns teens into responsible young, well adjusted adults. Cell Phone companies now want brainless parents to buy cell phones for toodlers. Should everyone do that as well? Yes, let’s keep indulging our children but don’t be surprised when they are 28 and still living in your basement. That’s providing they haven’t already killed themselves in the car you gave them. Cheers.

  • http://currentobstacle.blogspot.com/ Deefer

    As the parent of a soon-to-be-three-year old who will never know or care about the primitive world I grew up in (I’m 42), I’m afraid I’m going to have to side with PThomas on the insidiousness of cell phones, especially for kids. Is there any real reason for absolutely EVERYONE to be carrying one around? I don’t even hear much talk about limiting kids’ use of them lately. If I could somehow get away with it, I’d pitch mine to the curb as well. They’re time vampires and along with iPods and computers, young people have access to information and tools we couldn’t have conceived of, yet we hold them to romanticized notions of standards that were out of date in 1979. I’m still struggling with how to use technology properly and for productive things, how can we expect 14 year olds to do the right thing with zero guidance?

    Raise your kids properly in the first place. Teach them respect, morality and values. Above all, spend time with them, and after the blip of the teenage years, they will come back to those values.

    • wayne moores

      Well said, and by the way I ditched my cell phone that I was forced into getting by a previous empoyer. I don’t remotely miss the agravation one bit. I was tired of paying the insane monthly cost. Fighting over charges for texting, ring tones I never asked for. Soon as the contract was up(3 years in good ole Canada by the way, 2 in the states) I dumped it. Cell phone companies have everyone mesmerized into thinking phone bills for hundreds of dollars are normal. This service is insanely overpriced. Time for kids and their parents to grow up!

  • http://gapingwhole.wordpress.com/ Em.

    I don’t know if it’s polite to ask, but how old are you people anyways?

    ‘Kids these days’ have a very different relationship to technology than their parents. I have never known this mythical time without cell phones. It’s a new way of communicating and to call it insidious or consider it lesser in value than the old fashioned methods simply because it’s different than that with which you accustomed?

    Every generation complains about the new generation and how they are destroying values,ruining the art of communication, diminishing family values etc. But if you look at the complaints raised, they are always the same problems, but with a new medium.

    • http://gapingwhole.wordpress.com westwood

      Hear hear!

      Leads me to believe these so called ‘family values’ were fictional all along.

      • http://gapingwhole.wordpress.com/ Em.

        how could they not be fictional? we’ve been declaring the death of them for ages but they still won’t go away.

        although, to be fair to the subject of the article, hypersexualization of girls has nothing to do with these elusive “family values” and everything to do with economics. don’t people know that money makes the world go round?

    • PThomas

      Em – you bring up a valid point about each generation complaining about the one that follows in its footsteps. The relationship that kids have with technology nowadays is certainly different. I think my point is that we are all so fearful of missing something or being left behind in someway that we are propelling this NEED for technology in every medium imaginable. When people can’t go minutes without checking their technological device for messages, status updates etc…I say that is a problem. This just buys into the marketing of big companies who are selling these gadgets (and charging an arm, leg and your first born child for contracts!…lol about the last part!)

      • http://gapingwhole.wordpress.com/ Em.

        The way it seems to me, although I don’t have experience with kids much younger than me, is checking messages, status updates, all that just fits seamlessly into my day. The thing is, the problems that are worried about, lack of family time, spoiling children, these are the same complaints that are always raised and always will be, regardless of the technology surrounding the culture. I don’t know that this fear of being left behind is any different. Our economy runs on it, and maybe that’s a problem, but it’s a much bigger issue than parents spoiling their kids with technology. Perhaps parents are just equipping their kids with the tools they need to participate in the world?

        I think there is a problem, but it’s not the tools like cellphones or networking sites, it’s with the content and the message. Technology is an blank slate on which society inscribes its messages.

  • PThomas

    I think the problem is that “talking” just isn’t cutting it. I am actually a teacher so I know all to well about theh importance of talking to youth, modelling, educating, discussing, teaching students right from wrong etc…That is my career of choice. Some adolescents respond to issues more responsibly than others, that is a given. I often bring up such topics in my classroom so the students have an open forum to air their views.
    I think the major mistake we are making as a society is giving in to kids. This has always happened to some degree, but it seems to be now at an alltime high. Why do parents feel the need to provide their adolescents with cellphones anyway? I have heard some parents say it is a “safety” issue so that their child can contact them at any time. Given…good point. We all want our children to be safe. My point being, the phones should be programed for such uses. Calling home to arrange for a drive, tell your parents where you are going or heaven forbid in some kind of emergency. I fail to see texting, (let alone sexting) fits anywhere in the mix..
    I actually own a cellphone and it DOES not have a built in camera. I realize that buying a cellphone without a camera would not prevent pictures from being taken by others, often unknown to the person in the picture, but its a start…especially in the hands of immature adolescents. For goodness sake, there are even a lot of grownups who lack the common sense to not post drunk party pictures all over social networking sites, so how can we expect children to make better judgement???
    I am only 34 years old, so I am straddling an interesting era. I grew up when technology was beginning to boom so I know all to well about its pros/cons. I am young enough to see the benefits of technology, but am old enough to realize what is/is not really necessary.
    My point being, that just because it is available, does not mean we have to make use of it, certainly not to such a ridiculous degree.
    Everywhere you go, people are tuned in or plugged in to something. It is either a cell phone, iPod, blackberry, gaming system or some other device. I have been saddened when I see families out to dinner and one kid plays on their game system, the other is on their cellphone and the other has headphones stuck in their ears. This is an example of parents who are giving in to much to their kids and not “teaching” acceptable social behaviours. THAT is where we are spiraling out of control.

  • Randi Wanker

    Every new techology is immediately used for pornography…photos, 8mm movies, VHS, DVD, now cameras in cell phones.

    I wish there were sexting when I was a teen!

    Pornography is good clean fun. Let the kids enjoy themselves.

  • Chelsea D.

    As a 17-year-old girl myself, yes I do own a cellphone WITH a built in camera and my own laptop. Lucky for me, I grew up with parents who taught me that there were consequences for every action. Everytime I was on the computer since I was 10-11 years old, my parents always supervised me and always asked about my activities. When I was entrusted with a cell phone at the age of 14, my dad caught me sending naughty text messages and I lost my cell phone priviledges for a year. Since then, I have never sent naughty text messages or shared racy photographs of myself via picture messaging or Facebook.
    What it all comes down to is the involvement of parents in their kid's life from the get-go. The earlier you teach a kid the consequences of sharing your sexuality to the entire public community and the real responsibility of owning technology, the better. That way they grow up with those morals and don't get caught up with the fad along with their friends; the kids just wouldn't see the point. Worked for me.

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