Interesting discussion.
First off, the law in the U.S. is beyond retarded. The results that ensue are totally nonsensical and are clearly NOT what anyone intended to make illegal. A girl sending her boyfriend a topless pic of herself is (when she's 15 let's say) is not what the law was intented to capture. If anyone thinks that throwing that girl in jail and destroying her life serves any purpose, let me know where you live so I can come over and smack you upside the head.
As for the concerns of parents, I somewhat understand where you're coming from. However, sooner or later your kids are going to experiment and it's gonna happen no matter what you do.
Furthermore, the idea that talking on the phone or texting prevents a person from being successful seems a bit odd to me. It's possible I suppose, but sound dubious.
Also, how would all you parents feel about your uber successful child turning to prostitutes when he's 25 or 26 because he never learned to interact with opposite sex peers? It's a real risk. I know from experience.
Finally, I think that people's reaction to naked pics is WAAAAAY overblown. Laura Schlessinger (yes that Laura who's a social conservative harridan of the highest order) gave nude pics of herself to her boyfriend. They got out. Laura's life went on and NO ONE CARES!!!!
We think people care about these things, but I don't think we do. E.g. Tiger Woods (to pick a topical point). In 2 years (heck probably even 1 year) NO ONE will care. Some will remember but mostly, no one will care.
Sexting is a little different than being a porn star and I like to think that we can all tell the difference..
Then again, I'd like to think that we could just voluntarily stop killing each other and everyone would be cool with that, but I've been proven wrong on this point every single day of my life, so what do I know about anything...
