TeresaCentric

The Houston school district has implemented a new rule for the coming term banning students from sending one another nude or semi-nude photos of one another via text message. This is meant to tamp down on a reported "epidemic" of the behavior - which has lead to some embarrassing situations for teens when the photos have leaked out to a larger audience than the one originally intended. It seems a reasonable policy in the sense that kids often don't recognize the potential consequences of their behavior until it's too late. But I wonder how the schools are really going to enforce this kind of thing. After all - like like other teen digital behavior - sexting can happen before or after school and on the weekends. If it wasn't happening during school hours or on school property, there's not a whole lot that can be done. It might be smarter to try to raise students' awareness of the potential consequences of sending nude pictures of themselves to one another and then let them make their own decisions, just like with actual sex. This reminds me of the time Seattle Schools tried to ban freak dancing. It didn't really end up working out all that well.