You better not be sexting!

Becoming the Teen Issues Examiner has definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things that, as a parent, I'd rather stay blind to. Not that I didn't realize that these things existed...but more because when you have the statistics to back up the issues then it makes it really hard to say "not my kid".

A recent piece that I did about "sexting" pointed to the fact that, in spite of all the media coverage, one out of five teenagers admits to sending or receiving a text message that would fall under the category of "sexting".

I read over the report, my mouth hanging open, wondering what in the world was going on. First you have kids sending nude photos through their cell phones, then you have those same children being charged with sex offenses and being forced to add their names to sex offender registries, and then you have the same demographic admitting to the fact that they are still engaging in these behaviors.

What in the world?

I yelled out to my teenage daughter who was in the next room.

"What are you doing?"

She appeared in the doorway holding her cellphone.

"What do you think I'm doing?" She held up the phone to display a message she was in the process of sending.

"You better not be sexting."

"Eww, mom." She said as she turned back into the kitchen, "That's just nasty."

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief...

Then made the mental note to keep a closer eye on her texting habits.

Being the parent of a teenager is hard work...