sexting

What is sexting? It's a play on the words sex and texting, "sexting" is when someone sends sexually suggestive photos to another person by way of a cell phone/smartphone or when a person posts nude images of one's self on a social networking site. It used to refer to tweens' and teens' use of social networking profiles but it's increasingly done by adults who are "sharing" what is often considered lewd photos.

Sexting is considered a nationwide problem in the U.S. which has confounded parents, school administrators and law enforcers. Prosecutors have tried stop it by charging teens who send and receive the pictures but the challenge is that GenM, are more technically savvy so they are rarely "caught sexting" (one doesn't say "having sext"), as opposed to adults who seem to get caught more and more.

Historical perspective: In August 2012, the 114-year-old Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary decided to include "sexting" along with the words "F-bomb" and "flexitarian" (a semi-vegetarian) in their dictionary.

Just prior in June 2011, one of the biggest sexting scandals occurred known as "Weinergate." The Democratic U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner used Twitter multiple times to send links of sexually suggestive pictures of himself (and his penis) to multiple women, forcing him to resign from Congress. He returned to politics in April 2013 but after additional pictures of Weiner were released, Weiner admitted sexting at least three women since his resignation from Congress. Then in September 2016, the FBI investigated Weiner for sexting with a 15-year-old girl. His laptop was seized and emails related to the Hillary Clinton email controversy were found on it, causing a controversy late in the presidential election. On May 19, 2017, Weiner pled guilty to one count of transferring obscene material to a minor and on November 6, 2017, Weiner began his sentence. There are now rehab centers for sexting (see Internet addiction).

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