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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.

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And this can be because of class bias,
racism or homophobia.

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Most prosecutors are smart enough
not to use child pornography charges

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against teenagers but some do.

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According to researchers
at the University of New Hampshire

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seven percent of all child pornography
possession arrests are teens,

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sexting consensually with other teens.

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Child pornography is a serious crime,

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but it's just not
the same thing as teen sexting.

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Parents and educators are also
responding to sexting

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without really thinking
too much about consent.

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Their message to teens is often,
just don't do it.

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And I totally get it,
there are serious legal risks

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and of course,
that potential for privacy violations.

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And when you were a teen,

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I'm sure you did exactly
as you were told, right?

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You're probably thinking,
my kid would never sext.

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And that's true, your little angel
may not be sexting

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because only 33% of 16 and
17-year-olds are sexting.

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But, sorry, by the time they're older,
odds are they will be sexting.

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Every study I've seen puts the rate
above 50% for 18 to 24-year-olds.

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And most of the time,
nothing goes wrong.

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People ask me all the time things like,
isn't sexting just so dangerous, though,

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like you wouldn't leave your wallet
on a park bench and you expect

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it's gonna get stolen
if you do that, right?

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Here's how I think about it:

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sexting is like leaving your wallet
at your boyfriend's house.

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If you come back the next day

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and all the money is just gone,
you really need to dump that guy

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So instead of criminalizing sexting to try
to prevent these privacy violations,

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instead we need to make consent central

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to how we think about the circulation
of our private information.

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Every new media technology
raises privacy concerns.

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In fact, in the U.S. the very first
major debates about privacy

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were in response to technologies
that were relatively new at the time.

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In the late 1800s, people were
worried about cameras,

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which were just suddenly more portable
than ever before,

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and newspaper gossip columns.

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They were worried that the camera
would capture information about them,

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take it out of context
and widely disseminate it.

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Does this sound familiar?

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It's exactly what we're worrying about
now with social media and drone cameras.

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and, of course, sexting.

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And these fears about technology,
they make sense because technologies

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can amplify and bring out
our worst qualities and behaviors.

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But there are solutions.

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And we've been here before
with a dangerous new technology.

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In 1908, Ford introduced the Model T car.

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Traffic fatality rates were rising.


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It was a serious problem --
it looks so safe, right?

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Our first response was to try
to change drivers behavior,

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so we developed speed limits and
enforced them through fines.

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But over the following decades,

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we started to realize the technology
of the car itself is not just neutral.

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We could design the car to make it safer.

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So in the 1920s, we got
shatter-resistant windshields.

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In the 1950s, seatbelts.
And in the 1990s, airbags.

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All three of these areas:
laws, individuals, industry came together

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over time to help solve the problem
that a new technology causes.