Sexting - what is the issue?

[wim121]

Someone may correct me, but arent the consent laws to protect children from predatory adults and not from each other? Have you heard any under 16 year old teens being prosecuted for having sex with each other? I never have.

You havent looked in to the issue much then. It happens with great frequency.

At college, someone in my class had a caution for USI. He met a girl in a bar (that we shouldnt have been in because we werent 18). He was led to believe she attended the same college, she didnt, she was in secondary school. Only a gap of three years.

If you have worked in bars, you will be aware at the amount of 14 year old girls that look like they are in their early twenties. A push up bra and makeup really does deceive quite well.

(The reason why I have only targeted your post is because I have watched this thread from the start and feel the very notion of sexting is a subject one would be best staying out of!)

But isnt that how kids get pregnant, too much emphasis on the dont and nothing on the how to be safe. You do realise that telling people they cant do something makes it so much more alluring? This applies double to kids.

You claim the side of abstinence is wrong, yet your side is just as wrong by educating them to be safe.

By almost permitting kids to have sex, you show that by giving them condoms, sex is acceptable, hence the problem. Conversely, telling a head-strong child abstain and nothing else, doesnt work either.

They are two extremes. Instead, lets look at something you said:

I always had the option of a glass of wine or whatever was being drunk by my parents, and frankly I would have one mouthful and go YUCK! So it never became something attractive that I was prohibited from doing.

That is the best way to approach alcohol. Not to buy a crate of beer, expecting them to steal some, yet not banning them outright from drinking. Instead parents like yours and mine encourage you to drink responsibly and legally among family with a meal for example.

Let's look at the dutch. They have some of the lowest rates of teen pregnancy in Europe and the western world. What makes them so special? They dont threaten their children with one extreme of abstinence, or allow sex by leaving condoms around the house.

Instead they treat sex much like a fine wine the way our parents did. It is not uncommon for their families to sit down and talk about sex frankly and openly. A child should be made aware of more than just infections and the legal age of sex, but the emotional and physical obligations and consequences of it. That can only be done through open conversation, explaining what could happen such as preganancy, being kneecapped by the girls father, feelings afterwards and the complexity of relationships, etc etc.

You do realise that telling people they cant do something makes it so much more alluring? This applies double to kids ... This is why we have a drink problem in our society too.

No it isnt.

We have a drink problem across society from the very young, to the very old. Last time the OH and I were out, one man bumbling about, throwing up and being a drunken fool, was a local council official over 60 years old. Alcohol abuse isnt just kids on the corner with a cider bottle. It is a large subset of modern society across all ages and class divides.

One could argue that people like you and I, may be more responsible with alcohol because of our upbringing. Perhaps to some small degree, but that doesnt apply to elders.

Also one cannot cite the price of alcohol. In Europe (e.g. France, Italy, etc.) the price of alcohol is much lower, so why do they suffer far less than us or the states?

One can look to society. Look to the way media influences us. Media tells us you have to drink to socialise, to have women flock around you, to be interesting, to party and have fun on the beach with bikinis. That is the destructive corruption of western media.

Then look at our lifestyles. We may work less hours than some EU countries, but look at the social burdens placed upon us in public, the work ethic and immense socialism that borders on totalitarianism of the UK and US governments. Is it any wonder why people drink and abuse drugs, working in a futile effort during the week, just to get some kind of sweet release at the weekend. We have been programmed that partying is the way we should let our hair down.

[wim121]

But condoms save you screwing up your life.

This demonstrates the dangerous ethos in the west that I cited.

Condoms just lower the risk, not absolve it completely, especially to novices, of just two consequences of sex.

There are plenty of other consequences, which guys learn when they are being chased down the driveway with a pickaxe by an angry father.

[OwlHoot]

.. Last time ... OH and I were out, one man bumbling about, throwing up and being a drunken fool ...

Well to be fair, I'm don't always end up in that state

[EternalOptimist]

This demonstrates the dangerous ethos in the west that I cited.

Condoms just lower the risk, not absolve it completely, especially to novices, of just two consequences of sex.

There are plenty of other consequences, which guys learn when they are being chased down the driveway with a pickaxe by an angry father.

pickaxe handle. not pickaxe.


if you are going to tw@t someone for deflowering your daughter, you use a pickaxe handle

[Doggy Styles]

pickaxe handle. not pickaxe.

if you are going to tw@t someone for deflowering your daughter, you use a pickaxe handle

Yes, a pickaxe handle is more manouverable.

A girl I work with's dad used a gun. But that was while she was growing up in NZ so that's not unusual.

[mudskipper]

I first swapped 'bits' at the age of 9 at a Christian Union Camp. Me and a boy called Neil hid in the (ladies) toilet to see what the difference between boys and girls was. IIRC, his bits seemed a lot more interesting than mine - in that there was actually something to see. I think he was a bit disappointed in mine. We put them away, then went out and did a treasure hunt and sang godly songs. We didn't have camera phones in those days...

[EternalOptimist]

I first swapped 'bits' at the age of 9 at a Christian Union Camp. Me and a boy called Neil hid in the (ladies) toilet to see what the difference between boys and girls was. IIRC, his bits seemed a lot more interesting than mine - in that there was actually something to see. I think he was a bit disappointed in mine. We put them away, then went out and did a treasure hunt and sang godly songs. We didn't have camera phones in those days...

<cough>
I got similarly 'done' by a bird when I was 5. in the hills behind the junior school.
she seemed to know an awful lot.

and when I was 14, we didnt have mobile phones or camera phones, but if the parents had known what was going on - mars bars would have been banned.
and it was the girls who brought the mars bars to the mars bars parties

lovely little minxes that they were

[mudskipper]

<cough>
I got similarly 'done' by a bird when I was 5. in the hills behind the junior school.
she seemed to know an awful lot.

and when I was 14, we didnt have mobile phones or camera phones, but if the parents had known what was going on - mars bars would have been banned.
and it was the girls who brought the mars bars to the mars bars parties

lovely little minxes that they were

Wanna see my tits?

[Moscow Mule]

Aside from the comedy posts, this is a pretty serious education issue - kids could feasibly get onto the sex offenders register for sharing pics of under 18s.

Pretty stupid thing to ruin your life over...

[BrilloPad]

Pretty stupid thing to ruin your life over...

Indeed. But when do teens ever think? They often only learn through mistakes?