My friend emails me this morning and says she wanted to give me a heads up on Middle School Girls. She was watching a segment on The Today Show that says 1 in every 5 middle school girls will take naked photos of themselves and send them through their phones to others. The segment talks about kids taking photos and sending them to their friends and then another group taking photos a little more risky and sending it and then forwarding to all of their friends for everyone to see.
The reason for the heads-up...I have a middle-school daughter and she has a cell phone. I can't imagine she would take pictures of herself...let alone naked...and send them to her friends. Kids these days forward messages on their phones like adults forward messages through emails. There are mornings that she turns on her phone and there are 15 forward messages. They are usually harmless...like send this to 15 friends so we have a snow day...dumb stuff like that. I guess now I need to check in more often and snoop around her phone. She does have a camera on that thing. I did look and the only photos are of dogs and non-naked things.
The other night at her band concert was very interesting. I was seated right next to the waiting area or holding area for the kids who weren't playing at that time. (It brought back memories) The kids were laughing at dumb stuff, girls were flirting with the boys ( you know the hitting type stuff or the pointing and laughing thing), some were even writing and passing notes. I even caught my own daughter acting like a nut. That is what growing up is...having fun, doing dumb stuff, NOT taking naked pictures and passing them to friends. I will not take naked pictures of myself...I can't imagine if someone got a hold of those....the scandal it would create...innocent or not.
I guess it is time to once again sit down with the middle-school girl and talk about things that are appropriate and not so much. We had the sex talk a while back because of similar type warnings on shows like The Today Show. I just want her to be safe and make good decisions. Growing up these days is so not like when I was her age. I think I believed in Santa until I was 12. hahahaha
19 comments:
oh lord that is scary. i went to a kindergarten readiness meeting and of course most folks had older kids as well and oh vey the things i heard about the future years. i was completely depressed.
I saw that segment too! And immediately I thought - Alyssa would never do that. But it's probably good to remind her:)
I don't envy you.
And, Dan and I made it onto our Christmas card too. There's one big one of us and two small Betty photos. I can't wait to get them! They should be here today - maybe tomorrow at the latest.
raising kids is so scary nowadays. It's nothing like it was when we were that age.
I can't imagine why kid's are doing this. I mean when I was this age I was so shy that I wouldn't even dress out in front of the other girl's for basketball practice. But NAKED photo's passed around.. YIKES!! And You know I never thought about the camera phones being a problem. Wow this is disturbing.
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OMG that is just crazy! i am so glad i am not a teenager nowadays
Holy CRAP! I hate this... Having 2 girls has hubby and I ultra paranoid.. I am avoiding the sex talk like the plague... but I need to have it!
I totally see where this is coming from. I remember viewing my little brother's myspace page when he was 14 or so and the girls' profile pictures were 80% SLUTTY. These were 13-17 year old girls. I can only imagine what they do with their phones. And these were the popular girls from "good families". Scary.
I sure hope your middle school daughter does not read your blog. If I was her I would crawl into a hole and die. Watch out!!!!
It is scary. Keep talking, talk, talk, talk....oh and more importantly listen, listen, listen. While I totally trusted my Mom not to snoop I didn't trust my Mom enough to be there for me. I knew that if I had something I wanted to tell her that was maybe a mistake or something that would disappoint her or make her unhappy...I wouldn't tell her. I never felt I could just lean on her for support unless she would approve.
Establishing an open relationship with your children is imperative no matter how uncomforable it is. If we don't talk to our kids about these uncomfortable things, who will?
I have no reason to snoop into my daughters diaries, cell phone history or email. I ask her about what she is doing and try to be as open as I can. I want her to trust me and confide in me. She has shown me her phone pictures. If her grades were suffering or her personality would be drastically different, then I would be the biggest snoop in the world. She knows I blog about her and at this time she thinks it is just fine. I would never do anything to hurt or embarass her.
Today I told her I wanted to be a chaperone at her social tomorrow night and she about freaked...then it would be the embarassment of Mom acting like a nut on the dance floor. hahaha
That is truly scary! I suppose having talks with them is the best way to try to prevent this behavior...Good luck:)
My sister has taught (well libarian) at a Middle school and nwo the h.s. She said the middle school kids are much worse. I feel for you!!!
Tammy you are right.... she sounds like a good girl, and like said if she gave you a reason it would be different.
I'm glad that you are warning other mom's to be aware.
Good luck with the social event hehe
Awe; this is scary; what is this world going to.
Like Laurie said, I do not envy you, instead being the younger sister I hope to learn from you, being a parent is the toughest job ever...
Middle school has got to be one of the most awkward places in your teen years. What I hear actually goes on in middle school leaves me speechless and fearful of what lies ahead.
I am sorry I missed that segment! Its crazy, scary.
These are tough times to raise kids. As a former middle school teacher (and current school administrator) it scares me a lot that many parents don't stay informed and involved in their children's lives once they hit middle school. Talk to her...definitely...that's what we did with our kids and so far so good!
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