Despite this , the law maintains an age boundary between the legal sharing of sexual images of and between over eighteens , and the illegal sharing of images of and between under eighteens . This is reinforced by use of the term ‘ sexting ’ for those under eighteen . This draws a linguistic line between the illegal actions of young people and the legal actions of adults .
In addition to the legal framing of the activity , the term ‘ sexting ’ has a range of other issues . For example , whilst it could be considered a useful catch-all term to describe digital sexual activity , it is problematic semantically because it is so broad . In academic works , the term has been used to refer to any and all of the following activities : willingly sending sexual messages ; sending sexual messages under pressure ; 22 receiving wanted sexual messages ; receiving unwanted sexual messages ; 23 exchanging text-based messages with sexual content ; 24 consensual sexual image sharing ; and non-consensual sexual image sharing . 25 This leads to a need to ( re ) define the term ‘ sexting ’ in each new article published on the subject .
An alternative to the lack of precision of the word ‘ sexting ’ is the growing trend of adopting the language young people use to describe the behaviour . This is a positive move because , as Karaian explains , persistent use of language that young people reject , effectively silences them . 26 Using the language young people prefer may enable researchers to access the meanings young people themselves ascribe to activities . Using the language of adults may lead to young people simply parroting information they consider ‘ acceptable ’ to adults . This may include framing ‘ sexting ’ as illegal and risky . 27 Consequently , scholars in this field have begun using alternative terms , such as ‘ sending nudes .’ 28 This is more reflective of the language young people currently use . 29 Unlike sexual images may adopt new terms to distinguish their behaviour from the ‘ risky ’ activities associated with the naivety of youth .
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