L.A. Schools to Teach Kids How (Not) to Sext

LOS ANGELES—It may seem strange that according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, just three percent of cellphone-owning teens (which is about 75 percent of all teens) nationwide have sexted nude or semi-nude photos or videos of themselves, yet 21 percent of those teens claim to have received such communications—but hopefully, that's just one of the mysteries that the L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) will have teachers unravel this fall when they roll out what, according to the Los Angeles Times, "may be the state's most ambitious educational campaign around the issue." Of course, the fact that teens in general are interested in sex is not exactly news, and since they can't legally buy adult videos or magazines, can't go to brothels, and would probably have difficulty peeping on fellow students undressing in the locker room, short of actually having sex with their peers, sexting would seem to be an alternative outlet that some of them have discovered—and that's what the school district wants to put a stop to. Lotsa luck! Of course, the Times' opening paragraphs don't help. After reporting that one 16-year-old student had discovered "a group of boys huddled over a cellphone, laughing" at a sexted photo of two classmates, the story continues, "The photo, circulated on social media, embroiled the school in turmoil after the arrests of 15 boys, mostly on campus, on suspicion of sexually assaulting two girls. But what shocked Viviana ... wasn't so much the photo. It was the arrests. Sexting has become so common, she said, that few teenagers would ever imagine that police would get involved." So, if anything, the sexted photo actually helped the police capture 15 teenage alleged rapists/molesters—and that's what the school district wants to stop the kids from doing? Remember, we're not talking about "revenge porn" here, although some sexters are undoubtedly guilty of that. Rather, most of the sexting that takes place is consensual, with one teen trying to sexually stimulate another—but of course, in the adult world, that sort of photo or video has a name: child porn. "It's a perfect storm of adolescent hormones coupled with the immediacy of a smartphone," said Prof. Jeff Temple, a psychologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch who coauthored the Pew sexting study. And it's a storm that has set off controversy across the country, as states and municipalities try to figure out whether it's best to charge sexters with sex crimes including creation and/or transmission of child porn—charges that could easily result in, among other things, the student perps being forced to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives—or to take a "kids will be kids" attitude, avoid the kiddie porn charges, take away or closely monitor their cellphones, and punish them by putting them to work in some sort of community service job. So L.A. Unified Police Chief Steven Zipperman may have a point in telling the Times, "We're really trying to get the message out that before you push that send button, please think about what it may mean to you—not just the criminal factor but the embarrassment, your future employment, college entrance. What you do now matters, and they need to understand that." The kids themselves, however, think the issue of sexting should be handled in high school sex ed or health classes—and at least LAUSD has them, as opposed to far too many school districts across the country whose sex ed classes mainly consist of the teacher saying, "Don't do it," along with photos of aborted fetuses and phony statistics about how often condoms fail. The real problem, of course, is that once having reached puberty, many if not most kids will act out sexually to some extent, including trying to attract their peers with explicit images of themselves, apparently unaware that such photos/videos may easily find their way onto the internet and into the hands of child porn fans, thus setting up an intergenerational conflict with no easy solutions. "If there was a rule, policy or law against sexting, then most likely everyone in school will be arrested," said Damien Valentine, a recent graduate from Manual Arts High who said he's received several sexts. "At this point, it's so normal." In Prof. Temple's view, kids "should be given facts about sexting without exaggerating its risks," should be made aware that "sexting that is coerced, inappropriately shared or between an adult and minor is clearly wrong," and "voluntary exchanges between two teens should be discouraged through education rather than punishment." This fall, we'll see if LAUSD is up to the task.