It’s been a little over a week since the news broke about the sexting ring at Canon City High School in Colorado. Early reports were that at least 100 students were involved in distributing at least 300 to 400 nude photographs, including pictures of Canon City School high school and middle school students. Needless to say, the area is now trying to sort out a parenting, educational, and legal nightmare.
As we say here at CPYU, the people in Canon City have been forced into the redemptive or response mode. It’s for this reason that we’re adamant about trumpeting the need for parents, churches, schools, and communities to exercise a prophetic and preventive influence in the hope that these kinds of things won’t happen. . . at least as extensively or severely.
The prophetic mode is where we tell the truth about sexting from a biblical perspective. We explain that it is a horribly flawed and broken expression of the God-given gift of our sexuality. We also tell them that it is immoral, sinful, and wrong. In fact, we should flee from it! (I Corinthians 6:18).
The preventive mode is our effort to derail sexting by explaining ahead of time the moral, spiritual, relational, ethical, and legal consequences of sexting. In other words, consider now the consequences that could stick with you for life if you choose in the moment to send and/or receive sexually explicit texts and/or photos.
In an effort to help you talk about this subject with your kids, I’m passing on two resources. The first is our free downloadable handout on sexting that can be found on our Digital Kids Initiative page. The second is the video embedded below. . . 8 Things You and Your Teen Need to Know About Sexting. . . from our friends at Common Sense Media.