The editorial board on the statesman site released an article about sexting in Texas and how teens would be prosecuted thanks to a new law. The author is giving this message to the parents of these teens and he wants them to do something about this sexting problem. The author has statistics, such as a 2008 study by the National Campaign to prevent Unplanned Pregnancy, which reported that 22 percent of teenage girls said that they had been involved in sexting. He also has information of the current law regarding charges with sexting and how this new bill will charge offenders and what steps someone convicted of sexting must go through to clean their record. This adds credibility to his editorial and gives the reader an informative perspective on the subject. He ends the article by saying that “the legislature should create a separate legal category for minors who are caught sexting so that the legal system has a tool to deal with it.” The author thinks that the bill is tough, but offers teens a second chance to redeem their mistakes.
I disagree with the author and believe that the Texas government should not be involved in these types of cases, unless it involved an adult messing around with a young teenager. The parents are the ones that should be blamed and they should start actually being parents and teaching their kids about the consequences that sexting can bring. Involving the government into these type of affairs will only make the situation worse and the teens would be publicly shamed. The author also never talks about the types of tools that should be used to help fight sexting, which leads me to believe that every image that gets taken in a phone will be uploaded to a database which other people will be able to see. Sexting is also not a definitive term and it does not say what would officially count as sexting. Could it be a teen in a bikini or a dirty message? There are way too many things that must be addressed in this new law and people will use this to take advantage of it.
