WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 People have been using media to talk about sex for a long time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Love letters, phone sex, racy polaroids. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There's even a story of a girl who eloped with a man that she met over the telegraph 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 in 1886. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Today we have sexting, and I am a sexting expert. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Not an expect sexter. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Though, I do know what this means, I think you do too. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I have been studying sexting since the media attention to it began in 2008. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I wrote a book on the moral panic about sexting. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And here's what I found: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 most people are worrying about the wrong thing. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They're trying to just prevent sexting from happening entirely. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But let me ask you this: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As long as it's completely consensual, what's the problem with sexting? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 People are into all sorts of things that you may not be into, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like blue cheese or cilantro. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Sexting is certainly risky, like anything that's fun, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but as long as you're not sending an image to someone who doesn't want to receive it, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 there's no harm. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 What I do think is a serious problem is when people share private images of others 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 without their permission. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And instead of worrying about sexting, what I think we need to do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 is think a lot more about digital privacy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The key is consent. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Right now most people are thinking 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 about sexting without really thinking about consent at all. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Did you know we currently criminalize teen sexting? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It can be a crime because it counts as child pornography, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if there's an image of someone under 18 and it doesn't even matter 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 if they took that image of themselves and shared it willingly. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So we end up with this bizarre legal situation 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 where two 17-year-olds can legally have sex in most U.S. states 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but they can't photograph it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Some states have also tried passing sexting misdemeanor laws 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but these laws repeat the same problem 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because they still make consensual sexting illegal. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It doesn't make sense 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to try to ban all sexting to try to address privacy violations. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This is kind of like saying, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 let's solve the problem of date rape by just making dating completely illegal. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Most teens don't get arrested for sexting, but can you guess who does? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It's often teens who are disliked by their partner's parent. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And this can be because of class bias, racism or homophobia. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Most prosecutors are smart enough not to use child pornography charges 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 against teenagers but some do. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 According to researchers at the University of New Hampshire 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 seven percent of all child pornography possession arrests are teens, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sexting consensually with other teens. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Child pornography is a serious crime, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but it's just not the same thing as teen sexting. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Parents and educators are also responding to sexting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 without really thinking too much about consent. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Their message to teens is often, just don't do it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I totally get it, there are serious legal risks 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and of course, that potential for privacy violations. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And when you were a teen, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I'm sure you did exactly as you were told, right? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You're probably thinking, my kid would never sext. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that's true, your little angel may not be sexting 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 because only 33% of 16 and 17-year-olds are sexting. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But, sorry, by the time they're older, odds are they will be sexting. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Every study I've seen puts the rate above 50% for 18 to 24-year-olds. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And most of the time, nothing goes wrong. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 People ask me all the time things like, isn't sexting just so dangerous, though, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 like you wouldn't leave your wallet on a park bench and you expect 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it's gonna get stolen if you do that, right? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here's how I think about it: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 sexting is like leaving your wallet at your boyfriend's house. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 If you come back the next day 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and all the money is just gone, you really need to dump that guy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So instead of criminalizing sexting to try to prevent these privacy violations, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 instead we need to make consent central 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to how we think about the circulation of our private information. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Every new media technology raises privacy concerns. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In fact, in the U.S. the very first major debates about privacy 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 were in response to technologies that were relatively new at the time. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the late 1800s, people were worried about cameras, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 which were just suddenly more portable than ever before, and newspaper gossip columns. They were worried that the camera would capture information about them, take it out of context and widely disseminate it. Does this sound familiar? It's exactly what we're worrying about now with social media and drone cameras and, of course, sexting. And these fears about technology, they make sense because technologies can amplify and bring out our worst qualities and behaviors. But there are solutions. And we've been here before with a dangerous new technology. In 1908, Ford introduced the Model T car. Traffic fatality rates were rising. It was a serious problem -- it looks so safe, right? Our first response was to try to change drivers behavior, so we developed speed limits and enforced them through fines. But over the following decades, we started to realize the technology of the car itself is not just neutral. We could design the car to make it safer. So in the 1920s, we got shatter resister windshields. In the 1950s, seatbelts. And in the 1990s, airbags. All three of these areas: laws, individuals, industry came together over time to help solve the problem that a new technology causes.