Editorial: The ʻnormʼ of sexting and its real impacts

Texting, and its more suggestive counterpart “sexting,” are both associated with the millenial generation. Young people are both technologically savvy and sexually active. It was only a matter of time until the two merged.

In fact, the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC conducted a new study and found that sexting is officially a “norm” among teens — 30 percent of teens who participated in the study said they were sexted by someone in the past three months.

Upon first glance, this seems innocent enough and is not all that surprising. But upon further analysis, the study reveals that among the same teens, 33 percent of young women reported being asked unprompted to text photographs of themselves, while 18 percent of young men reported the same.

According to the study, this means that two in five teens have experienced cyberdating abuse in the past three months.

Yet, despite the apparent danger, the trend has gone largely unnoticed by schools, and sexual education has been slow to catch up.

Of course, it doesn’t help that popular culture reflects a belief that cyberdating abuse is harmless or even funny.

For example, the website TinderLines displays sexually explicit messages that men had solicited to women, and users then judge them to determine “The best, the worst and the funniest” messages. Some of them involve punny invitations to have sex, while others are more explicit.

People think the site is hilarious because the messages displayed are so overtly ridiculous, but why is it a “norm” among millenials? 

Maybe it’s because sending such messages from behind a computer screen lacks the personal element that would otherwise make such comments damnable. Approaching someone at a bar and opening a conversation with, “Wanna have sex?” isn’t exactly socially acceptable. Yet, when the same question appears online, it’s almost expected.

Because Internet messages lack accountability, they also seem less dangerous or real. But according to the Children’s Hospital study, the norm of cyber sexting can bleed into real life. In fact, the research revealed that teens involved with cyberdating abuse are more likely to experience sexual abuse in the real world.

To prevent this overlap of cyber sexual abuse and physical sexual abuse, teens must realize that the two are not different. Sexual assault is damaging no matter how you present it — the psychological implications exist whether or not it occurs in cyberspace.

When experienced, sexual assault can follow a person for the rest of his or her life. So, schools should change to accommodate this modern phenomenon and include the realities of the cyber world into their sexual education classes. If all schools teach students proper Internet conduct and safety, perhaps they can curb abusive sexting and, subsequently, lessen the psychological impacts.

Consent isn’t limited to face-to-face interactions, and it’s about time we incorporated it into social media.