What is 'sexting', and what does it mean to the current enforcement of Essay

What is 'sexting', and what does it mean to the current enforcement of child Pornography laws Are minors putting themselves at risk for a lifetime of hell - Essay Example engaging in harmful activities via these modes of communication (Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2011; Mitchell, Finkelhor, Jones, & Wolak, 2012; Wolak & Finkelhor, 2011). These harmful behaviors are cyberbullying, public posting of sexual images, and soliciting for sex online. Even though the legal definition of the term "sexting" vary across jurisdictions, most state laws focus on images relayed through mobile telephony. However, images are also transmitted through computers, web cameras, and digital cameras among other gadgets (Sacco et al., 2010). Current studies apply broader definitions of sexting, which defines it as the sending and/or receiving of sexually suggestive images or messages by mobile phones, in measuring the prevalence of sexting behaviors among the youth (Mitchell et al., 2012). The youth have extensive access to modern communication technologies, with a reported 25% of them owning mobile phones (Lenhart, 2009). This ease of access enables them to stay in regular contact with parents and friends. Consequent to this ease of access and use, sending and receiving text messages via mobile telephony has become easy and popular, especially among adolescents. A recent study estimates that the youth send and receive approximately 3,000 text messages monthly. In addition, many mobile phones also allow users to send pictures and video. Although there are many positive attributes of mobile telephony such as the ability to instantly connect, communicate, and share, it also has several potential problems, including â€Å"sexting.† The different definitions of sexting have resulted in conflicting findings by researchers on the actual prevalence of sexting among the youth. For example, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com conducted a study to examine the prevalence of teen and young adult sexting behaviors in 2008. In this study (Sex and Tech) sexting was defined as the relaying of nude or semi-nude photos or videos. The