the naked divide

I'll tell you about yesterday. How a student overheard me talking to another teacher about 'sexting'. About how this student rolled her eyes. How she noted that 'sexting' seems to be something adults are all up in arms about. So I presume she is fine with the notion of sending naked images of herself to friends, and of friends sending nude images to her. And she responds:

It's just so interesting that adults have a problem with it. That it's all over the news.

And if I were in her shoes (if she wears them), I'd point to this site and I'd have no choice except to agree with her. We're teaching about abuse, about manipulation, and violations of privacy, but we're overlooking the ones disrobing with glee, who digitize and transmit their privates with no sense of the word privacy.

They are voluntary participants in a network of naked transmissions, and we're powerless against a naked divide that we can neither mend or clothe.

all sextd up and no one to phone

Teens are sending nude images of themselves via their cell phones. Maybe you know this already. If so, you recognize that sexting is better than texting, and way, way more enjoyable than texting-with-benefits.




















But there's a downside. According to an ABC news story:

In Alabama, authorities arrested four middle-school students for exchanging nude photos of themselves.

Reminds me of middle-school, when I traded my Candy Maldanado card for a Dan Quisenberry and my friend and I wound up violating a bucketful of MLB proprietary guidelines and next thing you know, we're both under arrest, splashed across television screens, plastered all over local and national papers, mired in ignominy and embarrassment.

Thank goodness we didn't have cell phones.