The AARP has finally figured out a way to deter all those crazy tweens from sexting their chastity away: Inform them that a bunch of totally old people are doing it, too. In the November issue Online at AARP.org, reporter Jessica Leshnoff interviews a handful of first-name-only seniors who admit to sending photos of their boobs to other old people through text messages.

Read More “Old People Are Sexting Now” »

This Spanish PSA, which warns of the dangers of  “sexting,” follows a similar trajectory to domestic anti-sexting initiatives: There’s the ill-advised nudity, the mass tween sext, and the shame, oh, the shame. One difference: The Spanish version drops a lot of nipple.

Read More “Sexy Spanish Anti-Sexting Video Corner” »

Cell Phones: Not just for Sexting!

Drumming up a good teen sex scandal for the nightly news ain’t what it used to be. A couple decades ago, a news anchor could scare the shit out of some parents by just turning to the camera and posing a question: “It’s 10 o’clock. Parents, do you know where your children are?”

Nowadays, the advent of e-mail, cell phones, and GPS has ensured that parents always know where their children are. And so, local news reporters have been forced to dig a little deeper than that old rhetorical question for their parental scare tactics. Below, how to engineer a teen sex scandal using only a cell phone, a pair of blue jeans, and a few good “experts.”
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“Banana,” slang for “Penis”? What uncrackable code will the kids think up next?

Via Pukeimmediately: MyFoxAtlanta has published a valuable cheat-sheat for parents wondering what all the acronyms in their child’s texts really mean. Is your tween a Fond of Leather (”FOL”) Marijuana-smoking (”420″) Nude Club-attending (”1174″) Penis (”Banana”))? Are you reading your kid’s texts right over her shoulder (”POS”) as we speak?

Just don’t let your kids know you know, or they’ll change the code! What crazy new abbreviation for “I Am Easy, Are You?” (”IMEZRU”) will they think up next?

The full list of “Text Acronyms Parents Should Know” is after the jump (number 15 mysteriously not present—possibly just too real).

Read More “Fox Deciphers Secret Teen Sexting Code. “Banana” Means “Penis”!” »

Today is the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and right smack in the middle of National Offend a Feminist Week. I’m both offended and not teen pregnant. Coincidence?

I’ve always said that the best way to prevent teen pregnancy is to turn 20, am I right? But for those still stuck in their 13-to-19s, the campaign’s Web site offers a quick quiz to help you determine how likely you are to get teen pregnant.

If, like me, your teen years are mercifully behind you, take the quiz anyway. I used it to determine whether or not I can boast more emotional maturity than a 16-year-old.

And . . . I cannot! I took the quiz and scored as “Sort of a Sexpert.” (Sort of a Sexpert? Do you people have any idea who I am?) According to the campaign, that score means that “Most of the time [I] know what the right choice is, but [I] don’t always make it when it comes to sex.” Yeah, that actually sounds about right.

But hey, maybe I’m just too fucking old to know how to prevent teen pregnancy. There is, after all, a “sexting” question:

Laura and Amy are bored* one Saturday afternoon so they start taking goofy pictures of each other with Laura’s camera phone. At first its just funny faces and model poses, but then Amy lifts up her shirt and Laura snaps a picture of her. “I’m so sending this to Mike,” says Laura.

A. “Ha! Do it! He’s so hot. Maybe he’ll return the favor and send me a picture of his naked butt.”

B. “No, don’t! I don’t want him to get the wrong idea. I like him, but I’m not ready to hook up yet.”

C. “You have to delete that picture immediately. That was really dumb of me. I don’t want that pic to get
forwarded to everyone at school. Don’t you watch Gossip Girl?”

D. “Go ahead. Now he’ll see what he’s missing.”

I actually got that one right. But only because I watch Gossip Girl.

* oh, boredom.

The Daily Beast’s Ashleigh Banfield wrote a screed today arguing that “sexting” offenders—teens who send naked photos of themselves and others to other teens—should be prosecuted harshly, to serve as examples for others. Banfield says that a “little felony can ruin your life.” Which is why teenage sexters should receive felonies: to ruin their lives.

Banfield also suggests, in her title (”Drinking Age? We Need a Texting Age!“) that there ought to be a minimum age that adolescents can send text messages. “We’ve already decided they can’t be trusted to drink in moderation, drive before age 16, or make many legal decisions before age 18,” she writes. But Banfield doesn’t suggest what age would be appropriate!

So: At what are are teenagers old enough to handle the technology that will inveitably ruin their lives?

Oversize foam cell phone lures underage phone users into illicit world of fwded nudity

Parents! Do you know what felonies your tweens could be committing with their very own cellular telephones, and what stupid name the you will coin in order to facillitate freaking out to the newsmedia? Hint: the felony is “child pornography,” and the stupid name you have chosen is “sexting.”

Read More “Sexist Beatdown: “Sexting” Edition” »

Spotsylvania, Virg. got the honor yesterday of arresting two teens in our first local “sexting” case. Eighteen-year-old Spotsylvania High student Moizeis Ribeiro and a 15-year-old classmate were arrested “on possession of child pornography and electronic solicitation.”

Ribeiro’s partner-in-crime is young enough not to have his name released to the papers, but he’s still old enough to be charged with child porn.

Read More “Spotsylvania Teens Busted In Sexting Case” »

Fox 5 has a hilarious trend piece out on a new and disturbing trend among youth: “Sexting.” Award for lamest old dude opener goes to this treatment: “[Beeping noises] You see it so often: kids texting, their fingers doing the talking,” Fox reports. “But a new survey shows, many are actually Sexting.”