I listened to an NPR show last night featuring sixteen-year-old Rookie Reporter Temitayo Fagbenle, who researched and produced a feature on what she terms "slut shaming" at her school. aka sexual cyber-bullying.
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/07/168812354/online-shaming-a-new-level-of-cyberbullying-for-girls
While she focuses on the bullying and shaming aspect, the issue of child(teen) pornography
should be the front and center issue, which is why this board topic was chosen. (If there is a more appropriate place for this post to reside, please move at your discretion)
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/rookies/articles/radio-rookies/2012/dec/28/sexual-cyberbullying-modern-day-letter/
http://www.wnyc.org/people/temitayo-fagbenle/
The intro:
These days, many teenagers live half their lives on social media sites, and they're writing the rules as they go. One online trend 16-year-old Radio Rookie Temitayo Fagbenle finds disturbing is something she calls "slut-shaming," or using photos and videos to turn a girl's private life inside out.
There are countless websites, Facebook pages and Twitter handles that are created to shame girls online, many are literally called "exposing hos." When Temitayo logs in to Facebook her newsfeed is often inundated with sexually explicit photos and videos of other teenage girls that are posted, commented on, and shared countless times by her peers. Once these images make it online the repercussions can haunt a girl far beyond the schoolyard.
While they liken it to the modern day scarlet letter, after Nathaniel Hawthorne's
The Scarlet Letter, this comparison does not address the criminality of this practice and most importantly, it's seeming
allowance by the authorities responsible for patrolling online content. One reader commented:
Where is the "and then the boys were arrested for illegal wiretapping and dissemination of child pornography" part of the story? "After their convictions, their friends didn't think it was so funny, and the boys didn't hold their heads up when they had to register as a sex offender" would stop this from happening quick.
Yea, right?
For one, these teenagers posting their sexual conquests (child pornography) are engaging in criminal acts; no arrests or prosecutions have been made.
Secondly, these teens are engaging in sexual activity which many states would prosecute them for, which would leave kids labeled as sexual offenders for LIFE! (I know WI/USA to have this policy... most commonly when a pregnancy results) This does not seem to be an avenue of pursuit by the authorities to curtail this posting activity, either.
Third Miss Fagbenle tells of how when she brought the sexually explicit pictures posted on Facebook to the attention of FB's webmasters; they dismissed it and did nothing to remove the pictures! (That situation was revealed by Fagbenle in the radio interview)
It is understandable that this teen journalist is emphasizing the shaming aspect and the persistent double standard: girls being called --jezebels-- for sexual activity vs. boys being honored for their sexual conquests. At that age, focusing on self-esteem, preserving self-image and questioning fairness is a form of tunnel vision preventing them from seeing the long term and far-reaching effects of these actions, and from questioning why authorities are ignoring the criminal aspect of these activities.
Just the suspicion that authorities are purposefully ignoring this issue makes me disgusted. All one has to do to confirm such suspicions is to do a search on this forum and sott.net for "child pornography" and note how far reaching this problem is up the ranks of society.
Authorities stepping in? Ha, not when free child/teen porn can be had on FB... besides, by doing nothing they are allowing these African-American teens to hang themselves with their own virtual rope.
It's a win-win for the racist, psychopathic predators!
Actually, maybe a third win for the overlords as well.
All that teen sex and strife?... superb sustenance.
Excuse me while I find a barf bag...
