Beyond the “send” button

Students filed into Naperville North’s contest gym on the first day of school. Freshmen through seniors alike were there during their P.E. period to learn how to navigate the Internet safely. Many students groaned at this annual ritual, as it was a screening of a video they had seen just a short year ago.

The gym was buzzing with typical first-day chatter for most of the lesson. The fervor suddenly died down, however, when on the screen flashed a question to the audience.

Should the girl send this sexually explicit message to the guy?

The majority of the upperclassmen in attendance seemed to agree, as many cheered in unison: YES! YES!

Since 2009, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has mandated that each school district must ‘incorporate a component on Internet safety to be taught at least once each school year.’  In order to meet this requirement, NNHS chooses various videos created by the ISBE and compiles them into one presentation to be shown during P.E. classes.

According to principal Kevin Pobst, the student body’s reaction described in the above passage sent a mixed message to students: while the school condemns sending sexually explicit messages, your peers think it is a good idea.

This is why Pobst said NNHS incorporates the issue of sending sexually explicit messages, colloquially known as sexting, into the freshman class assemblies.

“For the past three years, we have had separate freshman boys and girls assemblies where we address sexting,” Pobst said. “There isn’t any laughing here. We want the message to be clear.”

Rather than using the term ‘sexting,’ Pobst prefers to call it ‘child pornography.’

“Sexting makes it sound like its a unique phenomenon. It’s not,” Pobst said. “It’s part of a larger thing – child pornography – and it’s illegal.”

This doesn’t stop teens from doing it. In fact, DoSomething.org reports that 24 percent of teenagers 14-18 years old have sent nude pictures, and 40 percent have sent a sext.

Pobst believes that the main reason for teens sexting is due to the teenage perception of privacy. He states that the tipping point for teens occurs during junior high and high school.

“There seems to be a gulf between [a teen’s] understanding of personal privacy and an adult’s,” Pobst said. “I think that teens send sexual messages because it is edgy, and they have the sense that sexuality is powerful.”

Local adolescent psychologist Mark Molina said that teens sext as a result of developmental changes.

“If you look at it physiologically, the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, the core center of decision making, is still developing,” Molina said. “Relational pressure and peer pressure can really drive someone to do something they wouldn’t normally do.”

Although the distribution of sexually explicit messages is a legal issue, it is starting to become normal and frequent, according to an article published in the journal Pediatrics.

According to Molina, the reason for this involves changes in how people communicate.

Molina said the changes in the way teens communicate contribute to a lack of intimacy. He states that kids say they average 5,000 texts in two weeks. This reduces the amount of personal contact, such as talking or going out.

In addition to communication, Molina also believes that because celebrities are often in the news, people are becoming more comfortable with their sexuality.

“Kim Kardashian is showing her naked body on a magazine cover. The moral compass of sex has gone down,” Molina said. “Kids are reflecting on what they see and think that this is normal.”

With rising trends in sexting, any school district must determine how involved it should be in its students’ actions outside the school day.

“Schools have more authority over things like bullying,” Pobst said. “The community expects schools to be more involved in students’ lives, but there are topics that should be communicated at home as well, like sexting.”

Pobst said that in the past, the district is notified of child pornography cases by parents, students or the Tip203 line if the said case concerns one of four conditions. The first three conditions ask whether the sext was distributed or created at school or if it interferes with the educational process.

The final condition has more to do with the school’s role in the community.

“We are viewed as a public agency that has supervisory authority over kids,” Pobst said. “Since we have you as a captive group, parents think we must do something about. I don’t think that’s a legitimate avenue for this.”

According to Pobst, the school should communicate a value system to kids about privacy and what’s appropriate.

“The community, dominated by adults, thinks that sexting should not be allowed,” Pobst said. “Maybe in the future, this will change, but for now [banning sexting] is a conservative approach.”

According to Molina, the most effective way to properly educate teens comes from a balance between home and school life.

Along with awareness in the family, Molina suggests that because girls statistically are more likely to send a sext, and are thus more likely to be affected, parents need to focus on creating a strong family bond with their daughters. Molina has worked with clients as young as 12 years old with low self-esteem that came from a sexting incident.

“It’s not that boys don’t need a strong family bond,” Molina said. “I’ve worked with more female clients in sexting incidents, and they need to be more open about their self-esteem.”

The schools, however, should focus on all the consequences of sexting, specifically doing so on school property, Molina said.

“Schools should definitely advocate against [sexting],” Molina said. “However, it is important for schools to give the education to kids on the consequences of the action and how to communicate appropriately and respectfully to each other.”

Molina said he thought NNHS has the right idea in teaching students about sexting. However, he said doing so by making students view a video is not effective.

Molina suggests that NNHS should bring student leaders to talk about the issue in social circles with emphasis on student-led discussions. He feels that this will prevent students from viewing sexting as a joke.

“If you’re being lectured, no one is going to pay attention,” Molina said. “You need something that’s more intimate and more personal, even if it’s based on real-life consequences.”

Although Pobst feels that most sexting incidents should be left to the parents, he does see validity in discussing the topic as a school.

“[The school] is one of the few places where we have all the students together,” Pobst said. “As an institution, we should be communicating that this behavior should not happen. However, if it does interfere with school, we should partner with parents and students to minimize that.”

Editor’s note: “The North Star” contacted District 203 assistant superintendents Bob Ross and Christine Igoe for comment on the school’s involvement in internet safety, but they declined to comment and referred reporters to the director of communications.