Sexting

I recently became aware of two sexting incidents at two different schools, at least one involving 14-year-olds. These young people are now potentially guilty of felonies; and who knows what family, social, criminal and long term consequences will follow. We hear about these things on the news and respond, horrified and judgmental.

At the same time, we are sadly familiar with the kinds of awful choices adolescents and their underdeveloped brains can make. At this age they need help, support and solid mentoring in their lives. But what does our culture offer?

It offers highly sexualized media, where sex is easy with no real consequences. It offers sexually infused marketing at all levels. It offers them mobility, freedom, money and indirect power with few constraints. If offers them a culture in which high percentages of parents, both men and women, have affairs. Sex is everywhere.

But there are no rituals for manhood and womanhood, or even places to have healthy discussions about this. There are few programs that educate about healthy sexual behavior. We leave it to the family, and hope.

So we don’t need to be horrified at the young people. We need to turn around and be horrified at ourselves.