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How to practice safe sexting

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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.
Title:
How to practice safe sexting
Speaker:
Amy Adele Hasinoff
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
14:25

English subtitles

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