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Abstract: 

At 18, Jorge Canal, Jr., took a nude picture of himself, slapped on a caption that read “I love you,” and in a moment’s time drastically changed his own future. The girl to whom he sent the photo was a 14-year-old fellow student at Canal’s high school. After the girl’s parents discovered the photo, they referred it to the police, and Canal was charged with a misdemeanor and put on the sex offender registry list. Today, Canal is 23 and his name still remains on his state’s sex offender registry list. “Sexting,” as it is popularly known, is the sending of sexually explicit photos and or videos via an electronic device. According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and such popular teen-trend websites as CosmoGirl.com, 20% of teens overall said they have sent nude or seminude pictures of themselves. This article examines the phenomenon and its harmful consequences, and suggests some sensible strategies for dealing with the issues it raises.

Keywords: sex offender registry; developing sense of self and identity; brain development; Snapchat; Instagram; cultural role models; social media; legal repercussions; peer pressure

Affiliations:  1: The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.