Need an answer to a burning digital question? Every other week, we'll be running one of the best Q&As we've received from our team of experts on digital ethics. This week’s response comes from the Boss of Me Campaign.
QUESTION
My bf and I do sexting all the time we don't do pics we just text cuz we think it's healthier to do it by phone than to do it in real. Are we wrong? Is it something that needs to stop? We don't know if it's something that can be controlled overnight but we need to know if it's ok?
ANSWER
Sexting gets a lot of negative attention from the media, which can make it seem like it’s “bad” or dangerous. Just to be clear, the reason so many people are concerned about sexting is because so many young people are pressured into participating even if it’s not something they really feel good about doing. People are also concerned because sometimes the person might not have thought about whether or not they can really trust the other person with those kinds of pictures and/or texts, or what might happen if you stop getting along and they show them to people. Whether a situation is healthy or unhealthy really depends on the trust, communication, respect and safety of and between the people involved. If you both really feel truly comfortable with each other, you have talked about your concerns and rules for your textual relationship and you have known each other long enough to be sure you can really trust one another and you feel confident and good about what you’re doing then there isn’t really any reason for concern. You certainly don’t have to worry about pregnancy or STI’s!!!
Have a question about how to delete digital drama from your life? You can submit questions to be answered by trained experts by sending an email to QandA@athinline.org.