Cell sexting: 21st-century version of ‘playing doctor’

I didn’t get my first cell phone until the day after I graduated from high school. In a world where eighth-graders have more tricked out phones than college students who actually work for the money to pay for their own phones (read: me), I know this is pretty shocking. I am a little astounded at how I somehow managed to make it through my last four years of public schooling with nothing but a home phone straight out of the 1980s, cord trailing behind me and all.

These days it seems that the age at which children receive their first cell phones — and basically make their debut on the social scene — is getting younger and younger. My 14-year-old cousin has a cell phone, and that isn’t out of the norm. If you’re a teenager without a cell phone, you might as well be living under a rock.

As a result of cell phones taking over the world with their ability to do everything but grill hamburgers and wash dogs, a new trend has reared its questionably legal little head: sexting.

I’ve heard a lot of different explanations for what sexting actually entails, but basically it’s what it sounds like. It’s the act of sending sexually explicit text messages to another person, which usually includes a nude photo or six.

The danger with this admittedly stupid act goes far beyond the worry that nude or sexually explicit photos might be seen by someone they weren’t intended for. Although that might be embarrassing or even traumatic, there are actually a lot of legal complications involved with sexting.

In the eyes of the law, any sexually explicit image taken of someone under the age of 18 constitutes child pornography. This means that if a teenage girl takes a picture of herself without her shirt on, she’s just produced child pornography. It also means that if she sends it to her boyfriend, she’s just distributed child pornography. If her boyfriend saves that photo on his phone, he is then guilty of possessing child pornography.

Seems pretty screwed up, doesn’t it? That a couple of teenagers who, honestly, aren’t engaging in anything more risqué than a souped-up-21st-century version of “playing doctor” could potentially be put onto the sex offender registry and ostracized for years seems a little drastic to me.

Teens across the country have had to endure the humiliation and disorientation that comes with having to be identified as a sex offender, rather than simply a teenager who did something stupid while exploring his or her sexual boundaries.

Luckily, some states seem to be catching on and lessening the penalty for sexting under the age of 18  from a felony to a misdemeanor. In Colorado, sexting is penalized on a case-by-case basis.

— Alexandria Vasquez is a junior human services major and member of Pi Lambda Chi.