You hear it on the news all the time -- Teens Caught SEXTING In School! Teen Sexting Goes too Far! 3 Girls Sexting Charged w/ Pornography! What is sexting in essence though? Is it another form of rebellion that an alarming trend of teenagers participate in? Or is it simply another form of sexual expression many teens go through since the history of teenage-dom? Or maybe it's both?

In Part 2 of The New Dangers of Teen Texting, we'll explore what sexting is, and how teens can sexually express themselves in a positive way without endangering themselves and their happiness.

Q: What the heck is Sexting exactly?

A: It’s a newly minted lexicon merger between the word “sex” and “texting.” Sexting is when kids trade X-rated pictures or sexually explicit content via text message. Roughly 20 percent of teens admit to participating in “sexting,” according to a nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy(more girls sext than boys). Recent media attentions to the phenomenon of sexting published stories about how these explicit pictures end up being forwarded to social networking sites like Myspace or Facebook, or worse, being forwarded around school.

Q: Yeah… but what is it really? Why do some teens do it?

A:  It’s one form of sexual expression teenagers engage in out of many. Teens often feel invisible in a lot of ways, so doing things that makes them more visible – like posting pictures on social networking sites, is typically seen. When it comes to sex, this isn’t the first instance we’ve seen of young people publicizing their sexuality. Before we had the internet and cell phone texting, we had video cameras, before film cameras we had the written word, and all throughout the history of teenage-dom, there were ways of telling their peers that they are a sexual person and that they were ready to publicize their sexuality for others to see.

While sexting might be more pervasive because of how easily the pic could be distributed and fall into the wrong hand of sexual predators, teens sexually expressing themselves isn’t a new phenomenon. People forget that at the turn of the century, in the 20's, in the 50's and 60's, in the 80's and 90's... there has always been something like this, some way young people were expressing or publicizing sexuality that adults were freaking out about, quick to proclaim as abnormal, and quick to state as something new that had never gone on before. Not hardly!

Q: Is Sexting a healthy form of sexual expression then?

A: It could be – it all depends on the motives of the person. Is the person sexting doing it because it’s a positive reinforcement of themselves? Is that someone doing it to share equal levels of intimacy with a partner in a monogamous relationship? Does it feel freeing and liberating and it’s a choice that person solely made on his/her own without coercion, and moreover, informed of the potential risks with boundaries? If so, sexting is a healthy form of sexual expression.

However, sexting is a negative form of sexuality when you feel a need to prove something to someone else – to try to get their attention or earn their love. If you’re sending sexually explicit content such as a naked picture of your body due to peer pressure or to get into trouble, in a situation that you feel you might be exploited – then sexting is not a healthy behavior.

Q: What are some of the main dangers of Sexting?

A: Sexting often falls under the legal definitions of child pornography since any photographic display of a nude minor, w/ the intention for others to look at and distribute it openly are considered serious criminal charges. Nonetheless, teens have made headlines in the news recently as they’re being charged and indicted for child pornography, even if the picture they took is of themselves.

And then there’s the social ramifications. You know the scenario, Judy and Jim are in a relationship and they want to “spice” things up and so Judy sent Jim a pic msg of herself wearing only what God gave her. Jim felt so proud that he had to send the pic to John who thought Judy was a big slut for sexting in the first place and quickly forwarded the pic to everyone.

Or here’s another scenarios – teens’ relationships are fast and hot. They’re together for 3 or 4 months and break-ups are ugly and really, what’s a better revenge plan than to forward all nudie pics that Jim sent to Judy and post it on Myspace? So, there’s a lot of room for serious betrayal or embarrassment, and something that felt good and liberating when done could really quickly turn into something that leaves the person who did it feeling very bad about themselves or their sexuality.

Q: How should parents be involved here?

A: No matter what kind of sexual behaviors teens involve themselves in, parents should always ask questions. Try not to ask questions that would lead to judgments and really listen to what their teens are saying. Ask open-ended questions that allow teens to express themselves comfortably, such as “how sexting make them feel.” Addressing the legal implications as well as social ramifications and issues surrounding sexting would certainly make teens understand boundaries of healthy sexual expressions. It’s important to help teens make responsible decisions and actually not make the decisions for them.