A very important study from University of Indiana has found that people you send your dick pics too, also share them with their friends. Erm, duh? Surely you didn’t think that you and friends were the only ones who traded gossip and pics. The outcome was that 23% show them to more than three friends — which, is surprisingly low.
Is this really what University students are studying nowadays? We can’t decipher if this is a joke or not… Is this research really actually helping anyone? That aside, it’s not even providing any interesting information. If you didn’t have the common sense to know that people show nudes of boys they’re chatting to, to their friends they’re you need to go back to University (or middle school).
Garcia, who ran the study, says: “It raises the question that if someone sends something to you with the presumption that it’s private and then you share it with others — which, when it comes to sexting, nearly one out of every four single Americans are doing, what do we want to consider that type of violation? Is it just bad taste? Is it criminal?”
No, it’s not criminal, because it’s not exactly a violation. This isn’t a therapists office, and ergo there is not confidentiality agreement. That’s why if you don’t want your photos on the internet, or see by the recipient’s friends, then you should never “presume” that it’s just for them. Technology and the rapidness of it’s growth is a double-edged sword; it’s lovely to have a shiny iPhone with an inverted camera, but don’t then cry because you used it to send a naked pic without thinking ahead to where it might end up.
Is it an invasion of privacy? Yeah, of course. And it’s not pleasant. But at the moment, it’s life. Technology is far too complex, and running far to fast for human beings to try and reign it in with laws. Are you gonna police everybody’s phone? How’s that for privacy? Although, for some reason, we feel if you make a sex tape with someone, then that’s a bit different.
Other ‘groundbreaking’ findings include, sexting being more popular with young people, and males over females. Who knew?
Garcia goes on: “But the real risk is not the sending of sexual messages and images per se, but rather the nonconsensual distribution of those materials to other parties. As sexting becomes more common and normative, we’re seeing a contemporary struggle as men and women attempt to reconcile digital eroticism with real-world consequences.”
So perhaps the real solution here, is not to send private images of yourself to somebody that you don’t entirely trust; strangers betray your trust, whether you involve technology or not…