Teenage Sexting

The act of sexting has many negative consequences. The number of teenagers whom participate in sexting is rapidly increasing. Sexting has become a widespread phenomenon that has destroyed lives and has caused emotional distress to many teenagers and young adults. Sexting gives teenagers the feeling of acceptance and the chance to be popular by gaining attention but what they fail to realize is the attention they are receiving is negative and it affects their reputation. Once a sext message has been sent, the receiver is given the opportunity to show the message to his or her peers and which will bring negative attention to the sender. Teenager’s sext for many reasons that may alter their lives significantly in the future. The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not sexting may be used as a way to improve one’s social status or gain acceptance and also if sexting may also be used as a malicious act, or a form of sexual harassment. Concerning males and females, there are double standards. If a teenage girl sends out provocative pictures of herself and those pictures happen to exposed, her reputation is automatically jeopardized. If a male sends pictures of himself and they happen to be exposed his reputation and popularity may increase.

Peer pressure has been an ongoing issue with teenagers. Teens feel the need to be accepted in high school, which is why there are a variety of “cliques” to provide the comfort of acceptance for different groups. Sometimes teenagers will do whatever it takes to be accepted or part of a popular group to fit in. Teenage females believe that by exposing their bodies through sexting, it may enable them to be accepted by their male peers and make them become part of the popular group. Sexting not only affects their lives currently, teenagers fail to realize that once a picture has been sent, it will never go away unless permanently destroyed, but there is no way of guaranteeing the picture has not spread. Choices made