Saving Some Things

This is something I had posted back in my senior year in high school. It was the heading article of my underground newspaper, which started as a result of my consitutional rights being effectively violated. I'm erasing it from my myspace blog, and thus decided to preserve it here:

Deep breath.

Last night, I came home from my usual Thursday night bible study to find the 23 February, 2009 edition of Newsweek. The front cover caught my eye at first, with images of cave paintings on a yellow background, and the headline, "STRESS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE". But when I read into the magazine, which I don't normally read, another article caught my eye: "Teens, Nude Photos, and the Law" by Dahlia Lithwick (a version of the article can be found at Slate.com, according to the magazine).
I was no stranger to the concept of "sexting"-"the clever new name for the act of sending, recieving, or forwarding naked photos via...cell phone", according to Lithwick. And this article isn't the typical fire and brimstone, slap-a-sex-offender-title-on-the-kid, but it really got my gears turning. The author of the column claimed that, as determined by a survey done by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, only one teenager in five reported taking and sending or posting nude photos of themselves, but that sexting has become an "epidemic".
And this is where statisticians should be slapped. One in five. That's one fifth, equivalent to, for example, 20 students out of 100, which truly can be a formidable number in some student groups. But what this article fails to notice is the ABSENCE of sexting. One in five speaks to me, and it says that four out of five students, four fifths or 80 out of 100, are not participating in the sexting craze. It's yet another one of those examples of typical media that pisses me off-in the words of John Mayer: "When they own the information, they can bend it all they want."
But, ladies and gentlemen, they don't own the information. The information is out there for you. The article goes on to talk about legal intervention in instances where teen girls texted their nude photos to classmates, namely boys. Three girls from PA were charged with disseminating child pornography, and the boys were charged with possession. Lithwick states that the girls are "14 or 15". A teen in Indiana is facing felony obscenity charges for sending one photo. Two other teens, one from Ohio (age 15) and one from Michigan (14), are facing felony charges, and many others have pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Instances like these have occurred all over the United States, and many of these young people, if convicted, are branded as registered sex offenders, sometimes for up to 20 years.
There's an argument later in the article about the charges involved with the taking, sending, recieving, saving, forwarding, and viewing of these photos-everyone involved is charged. Even those who may not have been involved at all and were just the unfortunate recipients of a forwarded photo. Then Lithwick talks about the appropriateness of police intervention in sexting cases in relation to threats or cyberbullying, using the example of a Massachusettes incident wherein a naked 14-year-old's buff was sent to more than 100 phones. We've all heard of cases like these. And frankly, I think that the kids taking and sending their photos deserve that kind of reaction from their peers.
But not from the law.
In this new millenium of technology, liberation, and frivolous lawsuits, a certain HUGE level of personal responsibility has been negated. With technology education undoubtedly comes education as to the level of danger in posting one's personal information, or personal images, on the web or on any electronic device. Though the teenage years are those in which many young adults begin to discover their sexuality (when 48% of boys lose their virginity, as do 29% of girls), which leads to the feeling that sexting may be risky, fun, sexy, and daring, there is still a medieval belief that these discoveries lead girls (mainly) into a state of victimhood (if that's a word). These boys, however, are not generally sexual predators-they're just testosterone-motivated youngsters with raving libidos. And we've all been there. Many of us are still there. This belief that girls have fallen victim to sexual pressure imposed by male (or otherwise) peers is simply a sidestepping of the level of personal responsibility that SHOULD be being assumed in these types of situations. The only victimized ones are those girls charged for "manufacturing, disseminating, or possessing child pornography', when the boys the photos were sent to are merely charged with possession. I agree when Lithwick asks, "If the girls are the real victims, why are we treating them more harshly than boys?"
The article ends with a call to parents-to "remind their teens that a dumb moment can last a lifetime in cyberspace". Lithwick also says that "judges and prosecutors need to understand that a lifetime of cyberhumiliation shouldn't be grounds for a lifelong real criminal record". And this statement rings true.
But it's all deeper than that, even.
This may or may not come as a surprise, but the American people-the readers, viewers, and consumers-are the real victim. We've all been victimized by ourselves in that we've allowed ourselves to be fed this bogus information without a single grain of salt. We've allowed this victim attitude into our homes, lives, and belief systems. There is nothing, NOTHING that resembles a victim in a girl who's willing to remove her clothes and photograph nature's gifts so she can send them to some boy in her class who won't remember her ten years from now-unless his record is still spotted from the incident. It is her decision and her decision only.
In this day and age, sexuality is far too open and far too liberal for these girls to not be informed of the dangers and consequences of teen or premarital sex. Most girls understand the entire mechanation by the age of 16, at the very latest, and, ideally, should have a developed sense of self respect. What this sexting "epidemic" reflects is a lack of values.
And it begins in the home. It begins with materialism in the parent. Long hours at work mean larger paychecks, larger houses, and louder cars. But they also mean damaged children, like it or not. If the adults of our nation, those people who should be teaching us to step up and run the country when they're gone, could let go of this gluttonous hunger and live at reasonable means, I'd be willing to bet my eyeteeth that this issue would begin to dissolve rapidly. Sexting wouldn't be the only thing to disappear, though. Divorce rates would probably fall, teen suicides and substance abuse cases would become more scarce, and teens would perform better in academic arenas. Stunningly, the nature versus nuture debate, one of my personal favorites, comes into play here. Psychologist David Hebb has been quoted as asking whether length or width contributes more to the area of a rectangle, and in this case, he was a genious.
Then it moves to the law. Simply stated, these people need to be paying attention to actual predators and criminals. I for one have a personal distaste for the law and those who enforce it, simply because many laws are poorly written, and those who enforce it often are not aware of their own rights. And many laws actually restrict our constitutional rights. I digress, though. These charges are more frivolous than those imposed by the woman who burned herself on hot fast food coffee.
Then it moves to the most important people involved-the kids taking and sending the photos. Yes, we are kids. Yes, we do dumb things. That's the reason we're not legal adults until we turn 18. We need that buffer zone to make mistakes, however drastic they may be, and to learn from them. That's the process of self-discovery. But kids, you're not off the hook. With these mistakes comes personal responsibility. We've got to man-up when we're wrong, follow through with our consequences, and lay in the beds we make. If it's unappealing, then we don't do it again. That's called maturity.
After that, the ball is in the court of the adults involved. A level of understanding is in order-everyone is a kid sometime in their life, and everyone does dumb, regrettable things. Compassion is necessary, and so is discipline, but not in a legal form.
Moral of the story: The law should be ashamed. So should the teens who are sexting recklessly. They deserve public ridicule if they are foolish enough to participate, bollocks to hurt feelings. Personal responsibility needs to be taken up, and maturity needs to happen. The hammer NEEDS to fall in this country.
Or this country will fall.
I'm still confused as to why, however, these principals who allegedly discovered the photos were violating the privacy of these students and looking through the phones. Lockers are one thing. Personal cell phones are another.