Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Sexting: At long last, a sexual offense not blamed entirely on males

By the numbers

·48: Percentage of teens who say they have received sexually suggestive texts, e-mails or instant messages

·40: Percentage of teenage boys who say they've sent such messages

·37: Percentage of teenage girls who say they've sent such messages

·22: Percentage of teenage girls who say they have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves

·18: Percentage of teenage boys who say they have sent or posted such pictures or videos of themselves

·11: Percentage of young teen girls (between 13 and 16) who have sent or posted such pictures or videos of themselves

Sources: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy; CosmoGirl.com

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

22% of teenaged girls are now guilty of distributing child pornography?

Anonymous said...

Now my question is this: if this misconduct were solely the province of boys, don't you think we'd be hearing much more about it?

Archivist said...

"If this misconduct were solely the province of boys, don't you think we'd be hearing much more about it?"

Probably, BUT . . . when was the last time you heard about a sexual offense where even the mainstream media admits the offenders are roughly evenly split along gender lines?

And how long will it take the sexual grievance industry to find a way to pin "sexting" solely on the boys?

Anonymous said...

I find it very strange that we would have laws in this country which, if fully enforced, would result in one fifth of our children being branded as sex criminals and forbidden to even live near a school or day care.

Yes -- these same laws "protecting" the very same children!

BeltainAmerica said...

Yes but as far as I have seen only male children have paid the ultimate price for this so called "crime". I have read about a number of teenagers who have had to do community service and such but only boys who have been branded with the "sex offender" tag for life.

I maybe wrong there maybe some girls who have as well I have only seen news footage or article on it being boys to date.

Anonymous said...

Girls are being destroyed, too: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,,25250075-5006301,00.html

Archivist said...

"I find it very strange that we would have laws in this country which, if fully enforced, would result in one fifth of our children being branded as sex criminals and forbidden to even live near a school or day care.

"Yes -- these same laws "protecting" the very same children!"

That is a brilliant observation. When a law would result in one-fifth of all children being branded "criminals," there is something terribly wrong with the law. I agree completely.

We, as a society, have become so constipated about the evils of sexuality (and, yes, really male sexuality) that we are now conflicted: do we hide behind our zero tolerance, Puritanical front that regards sex as "bad" and punishes sex acts far beyond what they deserve, or do we recognize this for what it is: kids being kids. To adopt the former approach defies common sense and denies the force of raging hormones. No, it's not conduct we should encourage or approve of, but it's kids being kids.

Archivist said...

Thanks for the link about girls -- that's consistent with what I've seen. So far, this is the first sex "offense" that seems to be affecting BOTH genders. A new age?

Elusive Wapiti said...

"22% of teenaged girls are now guilty of distributing child pornography?"

Yup, they're technically child-porn peddlers. I'd persecute them as such just to make my point about how stupid the Law is.

But Beltain is absolutely correct. Those prosecuted for kiddie-porn are the boys who receive (and later forward) the messages, not the purveyor of self-predating teen girl porn.

It is only when police start to go after girls that parents cry foul. After all, those dirty minded boys must be punished.

Novaseeker said...

Feminists would say this is a symptom of a patriarchal culture which values women on the basis of sexual use, and so what these girls are doing is a direct result of patriarchal programming.

We have to realize that the enemy is a religion, in effect. It has a pat answer to everything we raise. That is the nature of cultural/gender marxism.

Anonymous said...

These "liberated" girls are behaving to choose the way they want to, instead of conforming to "patriarchist" value systems that regulate female sexuality.

slwerner said...

Anonymous - "Girls are being destroyed, too: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,,25250075-5006301,00.html"

Actually, this story seems to me to beg the question, "would the media care so much if it were boy's facing such severe penalties?"

Reading further, we see that (presumably because girls are the ones facing sex-offender status) the ACLU has jumped in to help them:

"The American Civil Liberties Union, a co-signatory to the lawsuit, said Mr Skumanik's threat was unconstitutional, and prosecution could have landed the girls on the sex offenders' register, harming future job prospects."

Is there a case in which they come to the defense of boy facing the same charges/penalties?

On the plus side, having just asked my wife about how her jurisdiction is handling such cases, she tells me that the need to be completely gender-neutral in their charging, prosecuting, and in the the sentences/penalties they seek has been a matter of much discussion both within and between all jurisdictions in the state of Colorado. They are being extremely careful NOT to show any differences based on gender.

She also tells that if "sexting" teens are NOT facing having to register on the sex - offender registry.

Posting child pornography to internet sites in a different story, and they could be facing felony charges.

Yet, as long as they are charged as juveniles, the longest sex-offender registration that they would face would be 5 years (not pleasant, but won't ruin their long-term career chances entirely).

Still. it remains to be seen if the ACLU will "step-in" selectively where girls are the ones facing prosecutions in Colorado cases.

slwerner said...

Novaseeker - "Feminists would say this is a symptom of a patriarchal culture which values women on the basis of sexual use, and so what these girls are doing is a direct result of patriarchal programming."

As one who does not peruse feminist sites, I'm wondering if you (or anyone else) has come across their having addressed the issue yet.

You generally have good insights on such matters (so, I'm not intending to disagree; and, hopefully, this doesn't come across as if I am), but I'm simply wondering if they have tried to "spin" the issue yet, or if they are preferring to remain silent.

slwerner said...

[Lack of proof-reading strikes again]

"..if "sexting" teens are NOT facing having to register on the sex - offender registry " in my earlier post should have read:

"..if teens are only "sexting" to one another, they are NOT facing having to register on the sex offender registry."

Norm said...

obviously,

CosmoGirl does not consider it an offense per se. Otherwise they wouldn't have ever posted it.

Anonymous said...

What is it girls love to shove in boys face's? " Anything you can do I can do betterrr. I can do anything better than you.

I guess we see one thing they do better.

Anonymous said...

How many white middle class females are getting loads of state and federal funding for this new "SEXTING HYSTERIA"???

Pierce Harlan said...

The question of whether girls are being punished as severely as boys when it comes to sexting probably deserves an entire post of its own. I found this particular quote in this news story -- and it's startling that they would even think they need to add the last sentence: "[Lyon County Attorney Marc] Goodman wants youngsters aware of the ramifications of their actions, if they are prosecuted and convicted. They would have to register with the state as sexual predators, a distinction they will carry throughout their lives. Girls are included on the list as well as boys." Gee, you mean girls are actually treated as criminals when they commit crimes? Say it ain't so!

Make no mistake, at least to some degree, girls are being held to some level of responsibility: First case prosecuted in West Mich. is a girl

But double standards that hold boys to far greater responsibility for crime in general seems inevitable in this area, too -- See here : "A teenager in Allen County, Ind., is facing felony obscenity charges for allegedly sending a photo of his genitals to several female classmates. He's expected to receive probation and be ordered to get counseling. In Ohio, a 15-year-old high-school girl who faced charges for sending racy cellphone photos of herself to classmates agreed to a curfew, loss of her cellphone and supervised Internet usage."

There is also a trend to excuse the original sender, since she's sending it to her boyfriend out of affection. But see here: the evil boyfriend is the one who causes the trouble if he passes it on to his evil male friends: "In most cases, it's a girl sending a nude or partial nude picture of herself to someone she is interested in.
The situation gets tricky when that receiver forwards the sex-text on and it gets viewed by more than one set of eyes -- especially if the original sender is underage."

And, yes, you have to look hard but it's already starting: the usual cackling hens think girls who send naked photos of themselves are the victims: ". . . girls [are] often bullied into taking, and sharing, explicit pictures of themselves."

So here we go. Another offense where females are not morally free agents but are subjugated by the patriarchy.

Pierce Harlan said...

And see this: "Many . . . experts insist the sexting trend hurts teen girls more than boys, fretting that they feel 'pressured; to take and send naked photos. Yet the girls in the Pennsylvania case were charged with 'manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography' while the boys were merely charged with possession. This disparity seems increasingly common. If we are worried about the poor girls pressured into exposing themselves, why are we treating them more harshly than the boys?"

Yep. Here we go. In the brave new world of sexting, I predict that the inane chivalrous men who think girls need to be protected at all costs from the evil male predators will once more become the feminists' useful idiots in making the case that the persons who generally initiate the sexting (the girls) are actually the victims. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

They're bullied into sending the sex pics? Bull shit.

Norm said...

It sounds to me almost as bad for texting than grown women are for raping minors (teachers, etc.) Look at Debbie LaFave, for example - no jail time, just house arrest (except while she was being initially held, I think). I guess young girls don't have the option available to them: "My depression made me do it!!"

Anonymous said...

The above somehow got chopped up. The beginning should say, "it almost sounds to me like girls are being punished as seriously for texting, as grown women (teachers) are for raping minors