Is your teenager sexting? It is the new word to describe the recent tendency of teenagers to exchange nude or sexually suggestive photos of themselves via cell phones.

About 15 percent of teenagers in the US have received nude or sexually suggestive photos this way, estimates a study done by Pew Internet and American Life Project. About four percent of 12 to 17-year-olds admitted to sexting photos or videos of themselves. The figures double for 17-year-olds. About 30 percent of those at that age have received sexts and eight percent admitted to sending them.

Boys are as likely as girls to send the so-called sexts. Teens who pay for their own cell phone bills are more likely to send nude or sexually suggestive images or videos this way, according to the study. The report is based on interviews conducted from June to September with 800 teenagers in the presence of their parents or guardians.

If you are a Bermudian teenager (or an adult for that matter) engaged in sexting, there are some good reasons to reconsider your decision to distribute a salacious image before you hit the 'send' key. If you are a parent, read the report and understand the reasons so you can counsel your child on how to avoid behaviour that might have a backlash, and might lead to expulsion to school, and even have legal consequences.

Many of the teenagers interviewed by the researchers said they sexted for one of three reasons. In one scenario romantic partners exchange such images. Many are in sexual relationships. Others are not in sexual relationships and exchange the images as a proxy, at least according to one teenager quoted in the study.

The second scenario is exchanges between partners that are then shared with others outside the relationship. The third describes exchanges between people who are not yet in a relationship, but where at least one person hopes to be.

All three scenarios can lead to bad consequences for both boys and girls, especially the latter two, where the potential for at least embarrassment and abuse is greater. For example, there are many cases where the receiver of the image gets angry at the person on the image, a common reaction is to distribute it to as many people as possible as revenge, or post it on the internet.

In addition to the embarrassment this causes, and probably a reaction from your school principal, think of the unintended consequences. At your age the embarrassment of many people laughing at your victim could lead to ostracism. According to news reports, at least one teenager, a 13-year-old girl in Florida, hanged herself after a boy she liked circulated a nude photo of herself she had sent to him.

Then there is the legal side. As Pew states, laws and law enforcement practices around sexting are emerging to deal with the issue, and vary significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Some have taken the hard line.

What can one say about the incident in Florida in which actions by prosecutors and a judge left 18-year-old Philip Alpert on the registered sex offenders list for the next 25 years? He sent a naked photo of his 16-year-old girlfriend, one she had taken and sent him, to dozens of her friends and family after he had an argument with her. "It was a stupid thing I did because I was upset and tired and it was the middle of the night and I was an immature kid," Alpert told a newspaper.

He was arrested and charged with sending child pornography. He pleaded no contest to the charge and was convicted, sentenced to five years probation and required by Florida law to register as a sex offender.

While his lawyer tries to get him off the list of child pornographers and rapists, his life will be forever stained. One would have liked the prosecutors and the judge to use their discretion in this case.

Other law enforcement officers and district attorneys in the US have attempted to take the hard-line that this is child pornography, when in the cases under discussion that was not the intent.

Earlier this year in Pennsylvania a local district attorney threatened to use child pornography laws to charge 17 students who were either pictured in images or found with what he called "provocative" images on their cell phones. To avoid prosecution they would have to agree to participate in a five-week after school programme and receive probation. Other similar incidents have occurred in several other states.

On a more reasonable note, some state legislatures are stepping in to consider making laws that downgrade the charges for creating or trading sexually suggestive images of minors by text from felonies to misdemeanours. In 2009, the Vermont and Utah downgraded the penalties for minors and first-time perpetrators of sexting.

What can be learned by young Bermudians? First, do not send nude images of your friends, or anyone else for that matter, to others for whatever reason. Even if the nude image of an adult, you could at least be open to charges of distributing pornography. Secondly, if you are in a romantic relationship would you give that person a photo of your naked self?

Then why send it to them as an easily distributed image? Relationships end for whatever reason and people are hurt and think of revenge.

If you are being bullied to send such images, or you want some answers try WiredSafety.org, which is partnered with MTV, Facebook and MySpace as an online means of offering guidance to teenagers. The site has a campaign called "A Thin Line", which raises awareness about the dangers of sexting.

The Bermuda Government, local schools and parents also need to think about how to handle such an issue since texting seems to be almost an obsessive past time with many Bermudian teenagers, according to recent reports in The Royal Gazette. The Pew report is available at www.pewinternet.org

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