Welcome to Soap Box Wednesday! If you haven't seen this up before, go on
here and find out more! Get on up on your Soap Box and let me know what is on YOUR mind this week! What is it that's got your blood boiling, and drivin' ya crazy? Don't hold it in-- Get up on your Soap Box and shout from the roof tops! :)
Let me first give you a small excerpt from the article on MSNBC I found this week:
In an unusual legal case arising from the increasingly popular practice known as
“sexting,” six Pennsylvania high school students are facing child pornography
charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude or semi-nude photos of
themselves and shared them with male classmates via their cell phones.
The
female students at Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pa., all 14- or
15-years-old, face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child
pornography while the boys, who are 16 and 17, face charges of possession,
according to WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, which published the story on its Web site on
Tuesday. MSNBC: " 'Sexting' surprise: Teens face child porn charges"
This article is just one of many I have spotted this past month. The first I read was on the cover of People Magazine about 3 weeks ago. I'm really sad to say I was less than shocked. The age of girls having premartial sex is getting younger and younger by the DAY. This is serious! What in the world has happend to parents that has made them turn a blind eye to 12 yr old girls in mini skirts and tube tops!? Are they insane?
To the Moms and Dad's of 10-18 yr old daughters:
BE A PARENT!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is not "just a phase" for a 13 year old girl to be wearing booty-showing skirts, low cut tops and getting caught making out with a boy.
Parents can say what they want to make them think it's going to stop at just kissing, but I'm here to PROMISE you that it won't. It won't. It honestly will not. I get that absolutely no one wants to think that their sweet daughters are out being curupted by this world, and are being tempted by sex on a quite frequent basis, but it's true.
To the Moms and Dads of 10-18 yr old sons:
They most certainly are thinking about sex, and if you don't talk to them about it.. I guarentee that their friends are. Who do you want their information to be coming from?
Yes I meant to say starting at TEN years old. That's not a joke, and not an exaggeration. It is extremely frightening, but it's happening. Not just in bad schools, not just with bad kids. All boys ( and girls) are susseptible to the lures of Satan.
I can remember being 13 and in the 8th grade, and the rumors that floated around school after Christmas break that a guy and girl in my grade had been asked to leave the Private school, the highly thought of with a fantastic reputation and no nonsense private school, because they had been caught have sex. I was shocked. I'd known kids doing "things" in the 8th grade-- but Sex? It floored me. I went to church- I had great friends- and those things hadn't crossed my mind yet. But the second those 2 kids (yes, we were kids, despite the fact that we certainly didn't think we were) were expelled it was the only thing that any one could talk about for months.
As parents I'm sure most of yall have had the:
Parent: SO how was school today?
Teen: Fine
Parent: Anything good happen?
Teen: No
Parent: Really?.. Well, did anything bad happen?
Teen: Mooooom, stop bugging me. I don't want to talk about
it. You wouldn't even understand anyways.
Parent: But I want to honey. Just trust me.
Teen: Mom! Nooo! Just stop it, okay?
I was definitely that kid-- I'm sure most of us were. That's why its important BEFORE kids make it to that age that they know there is an open line of communication. Waiting til that time comes is too little too late.
I had a cell phone at 13, my parents traveled all the time, and well, everyone had one-- So it would be unfair to say 13 yr olds today shouldn't have cell phones. The problem is not making the connection of the permanency of texting and emails. Kids don't think. Atleast, not like an adult. They're trying to, and most of the time they are pretty sure they have it all figured out by the time they are 10. So when a 13 yr old girl has a 14 yr old boyfriend who she's been kissing and her boyfriends older friends tell him he should get pictures of her without clothing, that girl is open to situation she has no idea isn't a "small thing." She probably thinks " Well, it's just for him. It's no biggie. I mean- I trust him, and he loves me. No way will he show this to anyone as long as I tell him not to."
That's the bigger issue than girls and boys being prosecuted as adults for sexting. They should not be "sexting" in the first place. These kids are acting as adults... that's been happening for years, and its a big big problem, one in which many people think is too touchy of an issue to approach. Talk with your kids. If they play innocent, maybe they have no clue what you are talking about, but maybe they do and are scared to death of talking about it. The scareist conversations are the most important ones, and even if they don't listen I guarentee your words will stick with them. Let me know how you feel about sexting, and be open with them. If you aren't upfront with them, they'll see right through it. They might be kids, but they aren't toddlers. Teens and tweens are growning up in a big world of sin. It will continue to get worse. You can't be with them every second, but when you are make it count.
Kids shouldn't lose their innocense at 11yrs old--- be the hope they need, and help them to help it.
What do y'all think about it? Has anyone else had their ears to the floor about this issue? Any personal stories about this going on in your area? Please share.
Love Love
~KK~