When does innocent flirting turn into something more dangerous?
By Lauren Fielding
The Daily Observer
In a generation where pictures can be sent, forwarded and distributed to people all over the world in the blink of an eye, teenagers are being exposed to the provocative and disturbing world of ’sexting.’
‘Sexting’ is a term thought up by parents and the media to give a title to the sexually explicit text messages or semi-nude, nude and potentially pornographic pictures that teens send to each other over e-mail or text messaging. It is a plague that affects teens throughout Canada and countries all over the world, with one in five teens posting semi-nude to fully nude pictures of themselves on social networking sites or on the Internet and 39 per cent of teens sending sexually explicit text messages as a means of ‘flirting’ with a boyfriend, girlfriend or person of interest.
But when does this innocent flirting turn into something more deceptive and serious? There have been instances of girls as young as 13 sending ‘dirty’ pictures to their boyfriends, and male students sending pictures of their bodies to female classmates. The age of these senders is getting lower and lower, and it is a process that is easy to start, but almost impossible to fully be rid of.
