WOT’S ON UR TEEN’S PHONE?
How to fight rise in sexting
They while away the hours sipping lattes and sneaking bites of homemade sandwiches. It’s a familiar lunchtime scene for any adult in fruitless search of an empty seat at a Calgary coffee shop near a high school.
Another familiar sight is their noses nearly pressed up against the screens of their smartphones, as they scroll away at heaven knows what and only occasionally look up to talk to their friends.
So when I approach three teenage girls on Monday to talk about sexting, it’s not the icebreaker I hope for. “Um, how about never?” says one young gal when I ask about the last time she indulged in some lustful expression via text message.
“Only stupid people send naked photos or videos,” says her pal, possibly referring to people like former U.S. congressman Anthony Weiner. “What if I want to be a lawyer or a politician one day?”
While these particular teens seem to have got the message about sexting — a word that received official status in 2012 by the folks at Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary — it seems there are many who are still succumbing to expressing lust in the digital world.
In fact, a whole lot more than previously thought. That was the finding of one local academic, whose phone has been ringing off the hook for the past 72 hours.
“I’ve been getting interview requests from Australia, all over the world,” says Sheri Madigan, a University of Calgary assistant professor in the department of psychology. “It’s been pretty crazy.”
While a study that shows a lot of teens are sending sexually explicit messages, pictures and videos using digital technology might seem like a non-news story — after all, there have been 39 previous ones since 2009 — Madigan’s work is receiving international attention for good reason.
Conducting a meta-analysis of those 39 studies, which showed the prevalence of sexting anywhere from three per cent to 65 per cent of teens from several countries, Madigan was able to determine that the practice was more prevalent than previously thought, with about one in seven reporting having sent a text, while a quarter of teens saying they have received one.
Even more troubling was the finding that more than 12 per cent of teens are distributing intimate images without the consent of the sender, something that is now illegal in Canada and many other jurisdictions. (Individuals under the age of 18 can report such behaviour to cybertip.ca.)
Considering that smartphone ownership averages about 73 per cent among North American teenagers, it’s no surprise so many are interested in talking to Madigan about her study, which was published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics ( jamanetwork.com). Not only has sexting increased over the past few years, says Madigan, it’s also increasingly more prevalent in older teens.
What parents can learn from the study is that their focus needs to be less on the laptop and more on the little devices their kids carry around. “The majority of sexting is taking place on smartphones, not computers,” says Madigan.
While she actually expected sexting among older teens to be higher — 41 per cent of high school students report having had sexual intercourse — Madigan was troubled by the lack of awareness among teens about the consequences of sending sexual images or videos of themselves.
“You have sex and the digital world, which pose a double threat to parents,” says Madigan, who has four children of her own. “Kids are savvier than we are about digital devices, so it can be quite difficult to combine a discussion about the two.”
She, nevertheless, recommends a proactive, rather than reactive, approach.
“Have those conversations early with your kids and keep having them as they grow,” she says, adding that the federal government’s getcybersafe.gc.ca website is a great starting point for parents. “We all need to be good digital citizens, both online and offline.”
As for the teens I meet on Monday, they’re already in the cyber-savvy category when it comes to their private lives and bodies. “I like to flirt on text,” says one, “but I know that going beyond that can bring on a whole lot of problems.”