F. I. R. E.
Fully Informed, Reverenced & Encouraged NEWSLETTER
Quarter 1, 2017
It Is Our Desire for Every Soul To Catch On Fire!
Parents Is Your Child Sexting and You’ re Paying The Bill?
By William Jackson, M. Ed. Parents expand the talk about bullying into the area of Sexting to make sure your child understands that Sexting is a form of digital porn. One in five tweens / teens / young adults maybe risking prison because of sending and receiving child pornography. This includes risking being labeled as a sex offender or sexual predator because of distributing nude or seminude pictures of themselves or others under the age of 18.
Cell phone technology has contributed to the ability to send pictures and video that normally would not be accessible and sharable. Youth and teens have learned the empowerment and engagement of technology, applying it inappropriately because of immaturity; the thrill of sexual activity and peer pressure.
Parents need to understand that teens with cell phones are not restricted from sending, receiving or further distribution of nude or seminude pictures on Social Media. If a youth willingly or unwillingly is photographed partially nude, seminude or totally nude that is under 18 and those pictures are distributed electronically it is against the law. Even though the circumstances may seem trivial the results can be devastating to a young person. Their reputation within school, community and even where they worship religiously is damaged and can even be destroyed.
This is a digital age of E-reputation and |
E-personalities that are important and need to be |
protected and managed. Surveys have |
shown that teenagers and young adults surveyed |
by the National Campaign to Prevent |
Teenage and Unplanned Pregnancy and Cosmo- |
Girl. com found that 25 percent of teen- |
agers and 36 percent of young adults ages 20 to |
26 said they had sent or posted nude or |
seminude photos of themselves. |
This survey may seem hard to believe, the information holds true and seems to be growing because of the increase in cell phone use by tweens, teens and young adults is growing. The power of wireless technology has increasingly caused problems for parents, schools and law enforcement because of the increased ability to send and receive information on multiple platforms and even in Apps.
Parents should occasionally physically check phones for content, if a child refuses to give their phone when asked this is a red flag that something is not right and the parent should investigate further. Technology is a two edged sword, it can help with networking, research and empowering youth, teens and young adults with information. The Internet is a wide open portal to appropriate and inappropriate information and parents must communicate with their children their expectations for behaviors on and offline. Parents have a responsibility and are accountable to manage what they allow their children access to and will be held accountable if necessary by law enforcement.
Are you faced with holiday DEBT? That’ s probably because you Did Everything But Tithe
Did you know you can pay your Tithes and make donations to the Building Fund via the church’ s website?