Under the Influence (be warned: she streams audio, which I normally hate but started to endure to read her stuff; her music choices are good, I just have a dislike for streaming audio on blogs) wrote about sexting the other day, and I had not heard the term before.
Apparently the Today show even highlighted this issue. A young girl took her life after sexting turned into teasing and cruelty.
When I was growing up, the only way to have a nude picture of oneself was Polaroids. If you took a pic of yourself with a regular camera, the drug store would not process nude photos either (actually, I think they would process and keep them).
And Poloroids at the time could not be copied. So even if a Polaroid was taken, the number of people to see the photo is limited, and if you were to get the photo back, you could destroy the evidence. So when I was growing up, taking nude photos of oneself was not common, and if done, the damage is limited.
Hitting the send button on a cell phone is can be done without thinking. Remember drunk dialing? With drunk dialing, there is normally not any evidence to be disseminated to friends. Heck, when I was slutting it up years ago, a friend asked for a photo of me, and I took a photo downstairs only, thinking at the time that I was hiding my identity. The next day I was so embarrassed that I had sent the photo – and I don't have proof it was shared. Now that I am clear-headed and removed from the situation, of course the photo was shared. He probably sent it to all of his buds. Oh, was I stupid. And I was a grown up.
The story that started this deals with teens. On the Today show, they said that the sender of the photo, if under 18, could be convicted of child pornography (and registered as a sex offender). While I am okay with it being a crime, I hope it is listed a tad differently. I mean, if I am scanning the neighborhood for sex offenders, I think there is a difference between men and women who take pictures of little girls and boys or do things with them. I just don't want a 17-year-old girl who sends a nude photo to her boyfriend get placed on the list. I want to be disgusted by sex offenders, and once you place some on the list who are less gross, you make the sex offender list less toxic. And that needs to be a toxic list.
I don't watch Today, but after clicking on the story on sexting that I was writing about today, I saw the following, "Human-like robot makes runway debut". It premiered on March 23. Apparently, a human-like robot takes to the runway during Tokyo's fashion week. In the story, the robot looks like a Japanese woman and weighs 95 pounds. Luckily it costs around $200,000. When the price drops and there is an optional attachment to make other parts more interactive, it will mean the downfall of civilized society.
First Draft Cover Art
5 weeks ago