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Potential Negative Outcomes of Teen Sexting and How Pahr’s Arguments Contrast or Parallel Sternheimer’s Arguments

Sexting happens to be among the most dreaded behaviors among teens by parents. Pahr (2019) asserts that apart from subjecting children to harassment and bullying, technology can also make kids vulnerable to other dangerous situations such as sexting. Sternheimer (2013) defines sexting as sending racy photos or images via text or posting such images on Twitter or Facebook. On the other hand, Pahr (2019) consider sexting the exchange of sexually explicit texts. According to Pahr (2019), sexting, particularly in the form of explicit text messages or shared photographs, is becoming a common experience among preteens and teens. Nonetheless, despite its prevalence among teens, sexting may be associated with three primary negative outcomes. These outcomes include the potential for future harassment, negative effect on friendships and social standing within the teens’ peer group, and legal ramifications.

Sexting may serve as a source of future harassment by a teens’ partner in case of fallout or disagreement, and the partner decides to use shared nude photos as blackmail. Besides, sexting may be associated with legal ramifications in that anyone involved in sending or possessing explicit pictures of minors faces the risk of criminal charges such as child pornography (Pahr, 2019). Even in circumstances where such photos were received or sent consensually, such a person could still be registered as a sex offender (Pahr, 2019). Apart from being associated with legal ramifications, sexting may negatively impact a teen’s social standing within his or her peer group. In case explicit photos of a teen are shared among his or her peers, they may look down upon her and view her with disdain. Such a teenager can be viewed as an object of mockery and can lose respect among his or her peers.

When it comes to the impact of technology on teens’ sexual behavior and attitudes, Pahr (2019) and Sternheimer (2013) seem to have parallel and contradictions in certain areas. For instance, Sternheimer (2013) and Pahr (2019) have parallel views on the fact that teenagers employ technology or media sources in exploring their sexuality and identifying themselves. Sternheimer (2013) also supports this claim by arguing that contemporary youth are actively striving to discover themselves in the current society or culture that offers more sexual imagery than actual or exact information concerning sexuality, sex, and intimacy. However, the opinions of the two authors contradict each other in relation to the impact of technology on teens’ sexual behavior. For instance, Pahr (2019) attributes sexual behaviors among teens such as sexting to technological advancements such as smartphones.

On the other hand, Sternheimer (2013) refutes any move to blame changes in the sexual attitudes of teens on technology, particularly television. The author argues that changes in the sexual mannerism of teenagers cannot be blamed on television content, as television viewing tends to decline among adolescents and increases among adults (Sternheimer, 2013). Instead, Sternheimer (2013) argues that changes in teens’ sexual behavior should be blamed on social and structural transformations. For instance, when it comes to changes in social structure, the author argues that sex has transformed into another commodity of contemporary society. Sternheimer (2013) asserts that sex is subject to rapid circulation and it has become difficult to regulate and control it considering that highly sexualized images attract profit and attention.

The two authors’ views also differ in terms of the role of parents in regulating their teens’ sexual mannerisms. Whereas Pahr (2019) believes that parents have a role to play in controlling their children’s sexual behavior and proceeds to outline measures that parents can embrace to accomplish this goal, Sternheimer (2013) doubts parents’ ability to regulate the sexual behavior of their kids. According to Sternheimer (2013), adults’ declining capability of controlling the sexual knowledge of children has generated fear levels, and popular culture, which serves as a source of what was perceived as hidden information in the past, is always blamed instead of social changes and structural changes.