Teenagers Are Sexting — Now What?

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70NEWSJAPAN - Our lives these days are intertwined with our digital devices, for good or for ill. That includes adolescent romantic and sexual relationships of all kinds — happy, tragic, mutual, one-sided, healthy, abusive.

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And experts say that rather than being shocked to find that kids are sexting, we should instead be talking about it from an early age, just as we should about other aspects of their developing sense of their sexual identities.

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“It’s becoming a normative component of teen sexual behavior and development,” said Sheri Madigan, a psychologist who was first author of a large study on digital sexual activity published at the end of February in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

“The average age of first cellphone ownership is 10.3,” said Dr. Madigan, who holds the Canada research chair in Determinants of Child Development at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Calgary. Her advice to parents is to start talking about sexting — as with so many topics — younger than you think you need to.

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She suggested that for younger children, the conversations could be simple and could be put in the context of other absolute rules. “Let them know not to get into a car with a stranger, let them know that text messages and emails and online communications should never include anyone with no clothes,” she said.