Practicing Safe Sexting

In Amy Adele Hasinoff's talk about sex, she outlines the interesting dilemma in which teens today find themselves. Like teenagers throughout history, those today are beginning to experiment with sex. However, unlike teens from any point before the recent past, teens today have access to instant messaging and text messaging services, which allows them to sext with one another. The dilemma is that sexting, or, more specifically, sending nude images to one another, can be illegal in many states for underage people — legally speaking, it's considered child pornography.

Putting the absurdity of such a legal distinction aside, the issue that Hasinoff sees it that parents subsequently discourage their teens from sexting altogether. To Hasinoff, that's equivalent to trying to solve date rape by banning all dating. The key to ensuring safe sexting, then, is to find technical, legal, and cultural methods for ensuring that there is adequate consent whenever someone engages in sexting.