Tonight during the Super Bowl, CBS aired a Motorola Commercial with Megan Fox. I’ve embedded the commercial below, while it isn’t graphic it wouldn’t be appropriate to watch with kids in the room.
While there were a number of raunchy ads during the Super Bowl this was was incredibly disappointing. Why? Mainly because this paints sexting in a positive light. Sexting is fast becoming a problem among teens. One young man in Perry, IA learned that it can come with criminal consequences as well.
Here it’s laughed at. Ironically CBS back in January reported on this problem:
While it may be shocking, the practice of "sexting" – sending nude pictures via text message – is not unusual, especially for high schoolers around the country.
This week, three teenage girls who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell phone pictures of themselves, and three male classmates in a western Pennsylvania high school who received them, are charged with child pornography.
In October a Texas eighth-grader spent the night in a juvenile detention center after his football coach found a nude picture on his cell phone that a fellow student sent him.
Roughly 20 percent of teens admit to participating in "sexting," according to a nationwide survey (pdf) by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
"This is a serious felony. They could be facing many years in prison," CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said of the six teens in Pennsylvania.
But, Bloom added, "What are we going to do, lock up 20 percent of America’s teens?"
CBS in it’s reporting of this problem couldn’t get the name of the organization who commissioned the study they refer to. It is The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (not The National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy).
The study says that 20% of teens overall have either sent or posted online nude or seminude pictures of video of themselves. With 11% of young teen girls (ages 13-16). Also 39% of all teens are sending sexually suggestive messages via text, email, and IM with 48% of all teens reporting receiving them. Houston we have a problem. So when Lisa Bloom asks, “what are we going to do, lock up 20% of American’s teens?”
No, but we don’t put commercials on your network that encourages the behavior either. Shame on Motorola for making this ad, shame on Megan Fox for participating it, and shame on CBS for airing it.
Also to all parents, if you don’t monitor your kids’ cell phone’s, iPods, PDAs, and computers what the heck is wrong with you?