New Orleans, La The Beautiful Beyonce and the alluring Lady Gaga mega hit Video Phone has reached a breathtaking peak of 19 million views on YouTube. The collaboration of these two superstars was guaranteed to produce a hit, but was anyone prepared for the fall out?
In Beyonce's version of the Video Phone sequel there was a heavy emphasis on someone being able to see her, while talking to her. Judging from the choreography which creates a sort of sinister erotic undertone, viewers get the impression that they will see something really tantalizing on the video phone, and that's where the problem comes in.
According to The National Campaign to Prevent Pregnancy, Sexting has become a major issue for school officials and law enforcement across the country. With the increased popularity of Smart Phones we have now reached the age of the Jetsons in which teens can view the person they're talking to in real time. Something that was thought of as futuristic fantasy has now arrived with unprecedented side effects.
What works perfectly in the hands of adults can quickly turn illegal in the hands of underage teens. Sexting or sending nude pictures via a cell phone over the internet still equates to participating in child porn, even if the sender and receiver are both 17 years old. This is where the law has clashed with parents and school officials who would like to deal with the issue of Sexting without adding under age Teens to the list of Sex Offenders.
The Facts On Sexting
Nearly 20% of teens admit to sending racy or naked pictures of themselves in text messages. According to a February 2010 PEW report, 73% of wired American teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys.
Another recent PEW report found that daily text messaging among American teens has shot up in the past year from 38% in February of 2008, to 54% in September 2009.
And it's not just frequency teens are sending an enormous quantity of text messages per
day. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, and one in three send more than one hundred texts a day.
Now take 20% of the teen who have admitted to sending racy pictures of themselves, and factor it with the 73% of teens who now carry cell phones, and the end result is tons of naked pictures floating through cyber space.
Many of these same teens are totally unaware of the consequences of Sexting which can be life altering. Sexting has lead to child pornography charges against teen is 10 States, and an increase in the number of pending criminal charges continue to escalate.
Blame It On The Smart Phones
Smart phones are part of the reason so many cases of Sexting are now making their way to the local court house. Cell phone technology has evolved with warp speed since 2001. Today you can view the home page of Google as it actually looks on your laptop. The real threat to the innocence and privacy of our teens has come in the form of SMS Messages and Skype integration.
Whereas SMS video allowed the teen to only send a 15 second video, cell phones that offer Skype will allow real time imagery. Skype promotes the fact that their customers can enjoy voice and video calls to anyone else on Skype, conference calls with three or more people, and instant messaging with screen sharing.
The major challenge with this form of technology in the prevention of Sexting is now a teen can send longer video clips, and allow multiple teens to join in on the same video call. Skype has yet to allow a user to block the ability to take unauthorized photos, which means one of the teens within this group will have no way of knowing that their image is being recorded by multiple users.
Educating teens on the dangers of sending nude pictures via the internet or cell phones has become so urgent that it was recently addressed by Congressmen George Miller and the Committee on Education & Labor.
There are three ways Sexting comes to light.
The teenage relationship comes to an end, and the pictures are publicly posted out of revenge. One teen shares the photos with a close friend. The pictures are posted on a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter.Songs like Beyonce / Lady Gaga's Video Phone run the risk of sensationalizing Sexting in the form of video to video messaging. The music video for Video Phone even features men dancing with video camera like headgear as they promenade around Beyonce.
Ron Collins COO of Remove It Now.com says that all it takes is the wrong photo posted on Facebook to get indexed by Google, and all parties involved could find themselves in a bad predicament.
"Sexting is pornography, and becomes child porn if the images capture underage teens. The issue of teens sending inappropriate photos is still a matter that has to be policed by the parents of the teens in the photos. My fear is that life will begin to imitate art in a way that could glamorize sexting and lead to the destruction of the online reputations of teens all across this country"
Ron Collins went on to say that every parent should take this opportunity to connect with their teens on the issue of Sexting, and the potential future damage of engaging in the act.
Remove It Now.com is a website that provides consumers with information on how to remove insidious online content from the first page of Google and other search engines. Remove It Now.com is one of the leading advocates for Student Cyber Safety, and Cyber Bullying Prevention.
If you or your teen has damaging online content and you would like it removed from the first page of search results then please visit their website at http://www.removeitnow.com
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