After this last post, a reader directed me to this great article by Violet Blue over at SF Gate which asks: when teens make their own porn, who's being exploited?
What do you think? Can taking nude photos of yourself be healthy or harmful? When I was fifteen there was barely an internet, and I know I'm glad to know that the dumb mistakes I made back then won't be broadcast for all the world to see, but that's no longer the case. Have you ever had something you regret broadcast over the internet?
Showing posts with label sexuality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexuality. Show all posts
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Teenage Sexuality: How do you teach without the shame?
Do you remember a while back, a few high school girls in Pennsylvania got in trouble for sending semi-nude photos of themselves to friends via cell phone?
The atrocity wasn't that they got in trouble - a school restricting that kind of behavior among students I could maybe understand. It was that the police decided to charge all those involved with trafficking in child pornography.
Now, in a twist, a U.S. District Judge has now issued a restraining order against the original prosecutor, saying his actions went to far.
It's so rare you see a federal judge doing something that actually seems to really protect young girls without shaming them for exploring sexuality, that I consider this District Judge a hero. But it got me thinking, how should the girls parents and authorities responded in the first place? It's natural for teenagers to want to experiment, and the local police forces' strong reaction was definitely creepy. But sending nude or semi-nude pictures of yourself can be really risky. You never know whose hands they'll end up in, and once they've made it online there's no taking them down - readily googleable for any future employer to find.
So what do you think? How should the teens' parents and teachers dealt with this issue?
The atrocity wasn't that they got in trouble - a school restricting that kind of behavior among students I could maybe understand. It was that the police decided to charge all those involved with trafficking in child pornography.
Now, in a twist, a U.S. District Judge has now issued a restraining order against the original prosecutor, saying his actions went to far.
It's so rare you see a federal judge doing something that actually seems to really protect young girls without shaming them for exploring sexuality, that I consider this District Judge a hero. But it got me thinking, how should the girls parents and authorities responded in the first place? It's natural for teenagers to want to experiment, and the local police forces' strong reaction was definitely creepy. But sending nude or semi-nude pictures of yourself can be really risky. You never know whose hands they'll end up in, and once they've made it online there's no taking them down - readily googleable for any future employer to find.
So what do you think? How should the teens' parents and teachers dealt with this issue?
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