I became just shy of irate as I began to read an article about this "sexting suicide" today. Please understand that I empathize with anyone that has to cope with a family member committing suicide. I don't want to come off as cold here, but I have to say, I am outraged that the answer to this issue is to blame everyone else and possibly sue them! All over America now, teenagers are being sued for child pornography! Really? Teens will do what they are enabled to do. Don't give them cell phones and this particular issue is resolved.
I think Cynthia Logan should take responsibility instead of blaming other students. Her daughter took the photos of herself and sent them to a boyfriend! That speaks to parenting and level of involvement if you ask me. There would have been no stopping me upon first hearing about issues my daughter was having at school. She would have stayed in her room until she came clean about what was really going on. It's sounds like Cynthia did take some steps but in my opinion did not go far enough.
So now, Logan is all over television and news claiming the fault lies with others. She blames the other children and the school officials. Not once do I read about her taking any responsibility in the matter. She's throwing around statistics and percentages of boys who are sending out naked images of ex-girlfriends. Why was her daughter taking those kind of images of herself in the first place? Why is nobody asking THAT question? What was she teaching her daughter? Exactly how involved in her daughters day-to-day activities was Mrs. Logan? Logan was joined by Internet "security expert" Parry Aftab, who made the following statement...
“I’m going to get her (Logan) involved in a huge campaign to allow kids to understand the consequences of this and allow schools to understand what they need to do to keep our kids alive.”
Logan agreed...
You can talk to kids about this kind of thing all day long but if their life and values at home are contrary, you might as well be talking to the voices in your head.
Why is it the school's responsibility to investigate photos being sent on cell phones? How about parents block text or image sending features on their children's cell phones. How about not giving them cell phones at all? Billions of teenagers managed to grow up JUST fine without cell phones. They are not critical to the lives of teens or children. In fact, not having them may be critical to our children's lives. What is paramount is that parents start assuming responsibility instead of expecting the school system to police their children for them. I am a father. So I am not writing out of my rear end here. I take responsibility for my two kids. I make sure I teach them what's right and wrong but better yet, I plan on seeing to it that they don't have such unrestricted access to cell phones and Internet. I think it's about time the parents of America became more engaged in what their children have access to. Kids are growing up WAY too fast and doing very adult things with the tools we readily hand over to them on a silver platter!
Don't "take it out" on the school officials and the students. Take away the cell phones and the unsupervised Internet! There is your end to "sexting"!
