Poll finds sexting common among young people
WASHINGTON (AP) - Think your kid is not "sexting"? Think again.
Sexting - sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online - is fairly commonplace among young people, despite sometimes grim consequences for those who do it. More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found.
That includes Sammy, a 16-year-old from the Bay Area who asked that his last name not be used.
Sammy said he had shared naked pictures of himself with girlfriends. He also shared naked pictures of someone else that a friend had sent him.
What he didn't realize at the time was that young people across the country - in Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania - have faced charges, in some cases felony charges, for sending nude pictures.
"That's why I probably wouldn't do it again," Sammy said.
Yet, "I just don't see it as that big of a problem, personally."
That was the view of nearly half of those surveyed who have been involved in sexting. The other half said it's a serious problem - and did it anyway. Knowing there might be consequences hasn't stopped them.
"There's definitely the invincibility factor that young people feel," said Kathleen Bogle, a sociology professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia and author of the book "Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus."
"That's part of the reason why they have a high rate of car accidents and things like that, is they think, `Oh, well, that will never happen to me,'" Bogle said.
Research shows teenage brains are not quite mature enough to make good decisions consistently. By the mid-teens, the brain's reward centers, the parts involved in emotional arousal, are well-developed, making teens more vulnerable to peer pressure.
But it is not until the early 20s that the brain's frontal cortex, where reasoning connects with emotion, enabling people to weigh consequences, has finished forming.
Beyond feeling invincible, young people also have a much different view of sexual photos that might be posted online, Bogle said. They don't think about the idea that those photos might wind up in the hands of potential employers or college admissions officers, she said.
"Sometimes they think of it as a joke; they have a laugh about it," Bogle said. "In some cases, it's seen as flirtation. They're thinking of it as something far less serious and aren't thinking of it as consequences down the road or who can get hold of this information. They're also not thinking about worst-case scenarios that parents might worry about."
Sexting doesn't stop with teenagers. Young adults are even more likely to have sexted; one-third of them said they had been involved in sexting, compared with about one-quarter of teenagers.
Thelma, a 25-year-old from Natchitoches, La., who didn't want her last name used, said she's been asked more than once to send naked pictures of herself to a man.
"It's just when you're talking to a guy who's interested in you, and you might have a sexual relationship, so they just want to see you naked," she said, adding that she never complied with those requests.
"But with my current boyfriend, I did it on my own; he didn't ask me," she said, adding that she was confident he would keep the image to himself.
Those who sent nude pictures of themselves mostly said they went to a boyfriend, girlfriend or romantic interest.
But 14 percent said they suspect the pictures were shared without permission, and they may be right: Seventeen percent of those who received naked pictures said they passed them along to someone else, often to more than just one person.
Boys were a little more likely than girls to say they received naked pictures or video of someone that had been passed around without the person's consent. Common reasons were that they thought other people would want to see, that they were showing off and that they were bored.
Girls were a little more likely to send pictures of themselves. Yet boys were more likely to say that sexting is "hot," while most girls called it "slutty."
Altogether, 10 percent said they had sent naked pictures of themselves on their cell phone or online.
Criminal charges aren't the worst consequences. In at least two cases, sexting has been linked to suicide. Last year in Cincinnati, 18-year-old Jessica Logan hanged herself after weeks of ridicule at school; she had sent a nude cell phone picture to her boyfriend, and after they broke up, he forwarded the picture to other girls.
And three months ago, 13-year-old Hope Witsell hanged herself, after relentless taunting at her school near Tampa, Fla. She had sent a nude photo of herself to a boy she liked, and another girl used his phone to send the picture to other students who forwarded it along. The St. Petersburg Times first reported on Hope's death this week.
Other teenage suicides have been linked to online bullying, also a subject of the AP-MTV poll. Half of all young people said they have been targets of digital bullying.
That can mean someone wrote something about them on the Internet that was mean or a lie, or someone shared an e-mail or instant message that was supposed to be private. Less often, it can be more serious, such as taking pictures or video of someone in a sexual situation and sharing it with others.
The AP-MTV poll was conducted Sept. 11-22, and involved online interviews with 1,247 teenagers and adults ages 14-24. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
The poll is part of an MTV campaign, "A Thin Line," aiming to stop the spread of digital abuse.
The survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone and mail polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.
And in other news - Sun hot. Clay Aikin gay. Michael Jackson still alive. Wait...That last one isn't true. He died.
More from the 'Going Straight to Hell' news:
NYC man gets 75 years for mugging 101-year-old
NEW YORK (AP) - A New York City man who mugged a 101-year-old woman on her way to church has been sentenced to 75 years in prison.
Queens resident Jack Rhodes was sentenced Wednesday after being convicted of victimizing three women, including Rose Morat, who's now 103.
Authorities argued the 47-year-old Rhodes targeted two of the women because of their age, a violation of the state Hate Crimes Act. The law provides for harsher sentences.
A surveillance camera recorded the 2007 assault on Morat. It showed her using a walker to leave her apartment building when she was set upon.
Morat suffered a fractured cheekbone and bruises. Her attacker got away with $33.
Defense attorney Paul Montgomery questioned eyewitness accounts at trial and suggested Rhodes was being framed.
Nuff' said.
Jesus Christ dumped from jury pool for disruption
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Court officials say a Birmingham woman who changed her name to Jesus Christ didn't live up to it when she reported for jury duty this week. The woman, previously named Dorothy Lola Killingworth, was sent to Judge Clyde Jones's courtroom for a criminal case Monday.
Court officials told The Birmingham News Tuesday that the 59-year-old was excused because she was disruptive and kept asking questions instead of answering them.
Efforts to reach Christ for comment were unsuccessful.
Court administrator Sandra Turner said people there were shocked when the woman insisted her name was Jesus Christ and some potential jurors laughed out loud when her name was called.
But Turner said unlike some Jefferson County residents, Christ didn't try to get out of jury duty and was "perfectly happy to serve."
Actually, she would have been picked, but the trial was slated to start on the Friday before Easter, and she had somewhere to be, but in her defense, she did tell the judge she would be back in 3 days if the court wanted to wait. (I'm going to hell.)
Mass. woman sees image of Jesus on her iron
METHUEN, Mass. — A Massachusetts woman who recently separated from her husband and had her hours cut at work says an image of Jesus Christ she sees on her iron has reassured her that "life is going to be good."
Mary Jo Coady first noticed the image Sunday when she walked into her daughter's room.
The brownish residue on the bottom of the iron looks like the face of a man with long hair.
The 44-year-old Coady was raised Catholic. She and her two college-age daughters agree that the image looks like Jesus and is proof that "he's listening."
Coady tells The Eagle-Tribune she hopes her story will inspire others during the holidays. She says she plans to keep the iron in a closet and buy a new one.
Wait...What? I thought Jesus had jury duty. What is going on here? Something is amiss...Can't put my finger on it just yet...Well, I can if I lick it first and then get that 'Tssst' sound...
Giggle...Seriously...You should be extra careful when you carry live updates on your bill boards....Maybe have someone screen before broadcasting...
