Think Twice Before Hitting ‘Send.’

These days, we’re beginning to hear more and more in the news about something called “sexting” that many teens are participating in—the act of sending nude or semi-nude photos of themselves to other people via phone texting. Regardless of the reasons that it’s happening, one thing is certain: it’s happening a lot.

We live in the digital age. In the past we might have sent love notes or letters to the object of our affection but today we’re more savvy, sending love messages via email and even text pages. Except that these are not exactly love letters that are being sent. They are images with very private and very explicit content and in the wrong hands can cause great and, possibly irreversible, harm.

Making copies of someone’s private photographs is nothing new. Somewhere, someone was the victim of having their picture photocopied and distributed to others. Maybe even put up on a wall. But imagine what could be done with a photo that exists digitally on somebody’s phone or computer. It can be posted all over the web, sent to others and be viewed by millions of people. And it’s not always something that eventually goes away. If history has taught us anything it’s that images (digital or not) can last forever and follow us around for years to come.

There are also very serious legal consequences that could severely affect the sender. Some states have been charging teens with distributing child pornography and punishing them by having them register as sex offenders—this is a very big deal. These are things that could follow and greatly affect a person for the rest of their life.

So while sharing photos of oneself may seem like a fun and harmless idea, it’s important to stop and think what could potentially happen to those images if someone wanted to be hurtful, what could happen to the person who sent them and how long this could all go on. In the end, sharing explicit images for the fun and excitement of it just isn’t worth it. And remember, if someone is pressuring you to do it, it is NOT okay. Asking someone for a nude photo as a sign of love is definitely not so. But it is a big warning sign of abuse.