Sexting hysteria drives teen to suicide; Media blames sexting, fuels more hysteria

Here is but the latest example illustrating just how dangerous “sexting” is – not because sending or receiving nudie pics of yourself or others is particularly harmful, of course, but rather because of the hell overzealous adults will raise when they discover said pics. The thing, though, is that sometimes, this reaction can go beyond mere ridiculousness and end in tragedy.

Hope Witsell was a 13-year-old girl from Florida, and she had a crush. She took a cellphone photo of herself topless to send to her crush. Unfortunately, she was caught and, naturally, the reaction her simple and virtually harmless (and even cute) gesture wrought down upon her was ridiculously disproportionate to her act in itself. She was suspended from her school (which is bullshit, considering what she did had nothing to do with the school at all), though not before becoming the victim of harsh abuse and bullying by other classmates, who called her “whore” and “slut” without anyone doing anything to stop it.

Things didn’t get any better when it came to Hope’s situation at home. Her parents decided to giver her some “tough love”: by grounding her for the entire summer and removing her Internet and cellphone. Virtually overnight, Hope found herself ostracized from her friends and the world, already an absolute nightmare for most 13-year-olds, and on top of that, she faced vile bullying from her peers and underwent harsh discipline for simply sending a little picture of her bare chest to a boy she had feelings for.

The humiliation and despair Hope felt was too much for the young girl to handle. She committed suicide.

However, that’s not all, and this is where tragedy and injustice turns to outrage. As Radley Balko reports, the media’s attention when covering this story isn’t focusing on the hysteria and insanity that is itself responsible for pushing Hope to taking her own life, but Hope’s actions and sexting itself, therefore fueling more said hysteria and insanity.

With all due respect to Witsell's parents, who are obviously grieving, it's the adults in Sylvia's life who need the tough love, here. These overblown reactions to what's really little more than a technologically-enhanced version of the age-old game of "I'll show you yours if you show me mine" ^[sic] really do ruin kids' lives, be it by saddling them with a criminal record, securing them a spot on a sex offender list, instilling in their heads that they're some sort of outcast pervert, or in Hope Witsell's case—Jesus—driving them to kill themselves.

I found this story via a link to the blog Sylvia Has a Problem. The blogger, "Sylvia" I presume, points to coverage of Witsell's death on the Today Show and rightly points out the most infuriating and disheartening part of all of this: Media coverage of the case has put the brunt of the blame on the 13-year-old kid herself, and her "impetuous move" to tread in the dark netherworld of "sexting."

That of course means the likely take-away narrative from Today Show viewers learning of Witsell's death last week will be that we need to crack down harder on kids who engage in sexting. You know, "to prevent more Hope Witsells." Which really only increases the odds we'll see more Hope Witsells.

Kids make mistakes. It's up to the adults in their lives—from parents to school administrators to law enforcement authorities—to show some sense of proportionality and perspective in reacting to those mistakes.

It's a dubious proposition that sending a couple dirty pictures to a boyfriend is going to ruin a young girl's life. But the hysterical, puritanical reactions of the authority figures around her sure as hell can.

This is all just a horrible example of a closed loop effect: anti-sexting hysteria drives teen to suicide –> media blames teen and sexting –> false blame leads to more anti-sexting hysteria. Which brings us right back to square one. If you want to stop this madness, you need to focus on the actual culprits: the criminalization and demonization of a perfectly normal and harmless developmental process all children go through known as sexualization, when the opposite sex stops being “icky” and starts growing more and more attractive (or the same sex, for gays and bisexuals). Yes, children are inexperienced and naive, and yes, they will make missteps, but what they need is proper guidance, love and care, along with proper discipline when need be. Not having a sack of bricks dropped on their heads for doing something they had no reason to know or believe was wrong to begin with.

(via The Agitator)
Technorati tags: children · sexting · hysteria · suicide · Radley Balko · media · stupidity