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People have been using media to talk
about sex for a long time.

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Love letters, phone sex, racy polaroids.

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There's even a story of a girl who eloped
with a man that she met over the telegraph

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in 1886.

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Today we have sexting,
and I am a sexting expert.

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Not an expect sexter.

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Though, I do know what this means,
I think you do too.

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I have been studying sexting since 
the media attention to it began in 2008.

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I wrote a book on the moral
panic about sexting.

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And here's what I found:

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most people are worrying
about the wrong thing.

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They're trying to just prevent
sexting from happening entirely.

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But let me ask you this:

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As long as it's completely consensual,
what's the problem with sexting?

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People are into all sorts of things
that you may not be into,

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like blue cheese or cilantro.

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Sexting is certainly risky,
like anything that's fun,

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but as long as you're not sending an image
to someone who doesn't want to receive it,

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there's no harm.

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What I do think is a serious problem is
when people share private images of others

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without their permission.

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And instead of worrying about sexting,
what I think we need to do

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is think a lot more about digital privacy.

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The key is consent.

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Right now most people are thinking

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about sexting without really thinking
about consent at all.

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Did you know we currently
criminalize teen sexting?

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It can be a crime because it counts
as child pornography,

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if there's an image of someone under 18
and it doesn't even matter

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if they took that image of themselves
and shared it willingly.

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So we end up with this
bizarre legal situation

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where two 17-year-olds
can legally have sex in most U.S. states

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but they can't photograph it.

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Some states have also tried passing
sexting misdemeanor laws

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but these laws repeat the same problem

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because they still make
consensual sexting illegal.

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It doesn't make sense

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to try to ban all sexting
to try to address privacy violations.

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This is kind of like saying,

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let's solve the problem of date rape
by just making dating completely illegal.

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Most teens don't get arrested for sexting,
but can you guess who does?

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It's often teens who are disliked
by their partner's parent.