{"id":6762,"date":"2014-01-15T08:16:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T08:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=6762"},"modified":"2026-01-16T08:26:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T08:26:53","slug":"sexting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/sexting\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Uncovers Sexting Epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\nBy <a href=\" https:\/\/plus.google.com\/103911280480982124182?rel=author\">Robin Phillips<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {   var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];   if (d.getElementById(id)) return;   js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;   js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";   fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/sexting\/\" data-layout=\"standard\" data-action=\"like\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-share=\"true\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6809 alignright\" alt=\"cell phone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png\" width=\"293\" height=\"158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png 435w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone-300x162.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 293px) 100vw, 293px\" \/><\/a>New research published last week in the journal <a title=\"[opens in a new window]\" href=\"http:\/\/pediatrics.aappublications.org\/content\/early\/2014\/01\/01\/peds.2013-1157.abstract\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Pediatrics<\/strong> <\/a>shows that more than one in five middle-school aged children with behavioural or emotional problems have recently engaged in \u201csexting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This study builds on previous research by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/Reports\/2009\/Teens-and-Sexting\/Overview.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project<\/strong><\/a> which found that nearly a third of all seventeen-year olds have received a \u2018sext\u2019 at some time in their life.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012 researchers at the <a href=\"http:\/\/archpedi.jamanetwork.com\/article.aspx?articleid=1212181\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Archives of Pediatrics &amp; Adolescent Medicine<\/strong><\/a> studied 948 teenagers and found that 28 percent reported sending a naked picture of themselves via text or e-mail, while 31 percent had asked for explicit photos to be sent to them.<\/p>\n<p>In Romans Paul warned us that when men cease glorifying God, they are given over to sinful lusts (Romans 1:21-24), and one of the results of these lusts is that they will invent new ways of doing evil. (1:30). We see this outworked today, as new technologies are providing sinful men and women with opportunities to devise new forms of sinning. Often these newly invented sins require new words to describe the deviant actions.<\/p>\n<p>The evilness of sexting should be immediately apparent from scriptures such as Galatians 5:19, which condemns impurity and sensuality, or Romans 13:13 which commands us to not only avoid sexual promiscuity, but also sensuality.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the obvious lewdness and sensuality of sexting, the practice also reveals a deeper culture-wide pathology that is often overlooked. At a time when our digital technologies allow <a href=\"http:\/\/robinphillips.blogspot.com\/2014\/01\/disembodied-relationships.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>relationships without presence<\/strong><\/a>, many people are increasingly coming to view flesh and blood encounters as an unnecessary inconvenience. If co-habitation promises the pleasures of intimacy without the obligations of commitment, sexting promises the excitement of a sexual relationship without the encumbrances of actual intimacy. As such, it is the full flowering of the truly misogynist trajectory of the sexual revolution.<\/p>\n<p>In this sense, sexting works on the same principle on which pornography has always hinged. But there is a crucial difference. The women who become victims of the porn industry are lured primarily by money and prestige; by contrast, women who participate in \u2018sexting\u2019 are lured by what promises to be a quick and easy substitute to the vulnerability and fragility attached to embodied relationships.<\/p>\n<p>It may come as a surprise that women are sexting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/07\/17\/fashion\/women-are-more-likely-to-sext-than-men-study-says-studied.html?_r=3&amp;src=recg&amp;\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>more than men<\/strong><\/a>. In one sense, of course, sexting makes women more vulnerable: a man who has no scruples when it comes to receiving or asking for explicit pictures is probably going to have no scruples when it comes to forwarding those pictures to his mates. A woman who engages in sexting thus sets herself up for the worst sort of public exploitation and is forever under the power of the man she trusted. But in another sense, sexting makes women less vulnerable, because a girl can experience the excitement of giving her body to a man without ever having to do business with him as an embodied person, without having to approach him in all her vulnerability, fragility and humanness. For many women, this is precisely the appeal of sexting. Sexting is thus seen as liberating sex from the problem that has dogged it from the beginning, namely having to deal with real people. An article in <em>Sans Magazine<\/em> was exuberant about sexting\u2019s potential to free sexual relationships from the constraints that come with physical presence:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>No longer do we actually have to commit to a single task of actually physically undressing, warming up our partner and then engaging in the carnal act of intercourse\u2026. Plus, we don\u2019t ever have to actually see the person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This quote demonstrates how sexting is the culmination of the dehumanizing principles behind the sexual revolution. The promise of the sexual revolution was that intimacy could be fulfilling outside the obligations of marriage, a promise that <a href=\"http:\/\/salvomag.com\/new\/articles\/salvo24\/holy-matrimony.php\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>researchers have now discovered to be false<\/strong><\/a>. The lie of the 21st century is that sex can be fulfilling without actual intimacy. This too will be found to be a lie. In the meantime, the problem is that by coupling sexual pathologies with extremely addictive digital technologies, that brain is <a href=\"http:\/\/salvomag.com\/new\/articles\/salvo21\/the-neuro-transformers.php\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>being rewired<\/strong><\/a> to think differently about sex, relationships and what it means to be human.<\/p>\n<p>The solution is a return to the Biblical understanding of what it means to love and what it means to be human. As Christians we recognize that it is God who created the powerful urge to physically connect with members of the opposite sex. But God also created the context in which that desire for physical connection can flourish and achieve its proper end.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-comments\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/sexting\/\" data-numposts=\"5\" data-colorscheme=\"light\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robin Phillips New research published last week in the journal Pediatrics shows that more than one in five middle-school aged children with behavioural or emotional problems have recently engaged in \u201csexting.\u201d This study builds on previous research by the Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project which found that nearly a third of all seventeen-year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035],"tags":[969],"class_list":["post-6762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-children","tag-sexting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone-300x162.png",300,162,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_0x420":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_80x60":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",80,43,false],"td_100x75":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",100,54,false],"td_180x135":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",180,97,false],"td_238x178":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",238,129,false],"td_265x198":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",265,143,false],"td_300x160":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",296,160,false],"td_300x194":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",300,162,false],"td_300x350":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",300,162,false],"td_341x220":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",341,184,false],"td_341x400":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",341,184,false],"td_511x400":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_537x360":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_640x0":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_640x350":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_681x0":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_681x400":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_741x486":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"td_1021x580":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone-300x235.png",300,235,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone.png",435,235,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cell-phone-100x100.png",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Robin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/robin\/"},"rttpg_comment":4,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/education-children\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Education &amp; Children<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Robin Phillips New research published last week in the journal Pediatrics shows that more than one in five middle-school aged children with behavioural or emotional problems have recently engaged in \u201csexting.\u201d This study builds on previous research by the Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project which found that nearly a third of all seventeen-year&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}