TechTrends: The Dangers of Adult Sexting

If you were thinking about doing something a little extra special for your Valentine next week, you might want to think again.  Sending a racy text message or email might seem like a good idea at the time, but there are some very real risks involved as well.

We’ve all heard about how sexting has damaged or ruined the careers of public figures (remember Anthony Weiner?), but what about the rest of us?  Before you hit ‘send’, there are some very important things to consider about sexting.

The first and most important issue to consider about sexting is that you cannot put the genie back in the bottle!  Once that message is out there in the world, you can’t get it back.  And you don’t have any control over how it gets used either.  Your phone or email account could get hacked and you could end up on any number of porn sites, like this woman.  But it might not be a stranger you have to worry about.  Think about what might happen if your significant other becomes someone a little less important to you and decides to retaliate by making sure everyone at your school/job/church gets a peek at your goods?  Even if it’s not malicious, the likelihood of your man showing a racy picture of you off to his boys is a definite possibility and then what do you do when you’re getting crazy stares at the next cookout?

Another thing to consider is that celebrities aren’t the only ones that lose jobs over this type of foolishness.  Some employers look at this type of behavior as poor judgment, which can be enough for dismissal.  And it may not matter to them that this was something you did on your own time, with your own phone.  These days, a positive online identity is crucial for anything from employment to credit risk assessment, so you don’t want to do anything that may damage your online reputation.  There are also legal ramifications as well.  If you’re sending sexts to someone you’ve only met recently, there is always the possibility that person could be a minor, or that a misunderstanding could get you a stalking and/or sexual harassment charge.  Bottom line – putting anything out on the internet makes it a permanent part of cyberspace.  Years from now, you don’t want to be sitting in an interview trying to explain why a Google search of your name returned pictures suitable for Playboy.

As an adult, you have the right to make your own decisions about the type of communication you have with another legal adult.  Just understand that the potential for that communication to go wrong is real, and the consequences that follow may not ever be resolved.