It’s not a secret that today’s teenagers and pre-teenagers are much more emancipated than people were decades ago. The social environment they grew up in bombarded them with both violent and sexual images to such an extent that these images and actions do not surprise anymore, but have even become routine.

 

You can argue that someone who grew up during the First World War was exposed to more violence than a teenager who plays video games, yet that is the exact idea – violence is no longer seen as a rare occurrence with negative consequences, but as a part of daily life. Along the same lines, sexually explicit images and pornography have shared the same fate.

 

What better way is there, then, to share racy or even nude pictures of yourself than the Internet? Websites were usually the place where one could share such photos, sometimes to get revenge or as a practical joke on someone else, but these days you don’t have to code a website – you can use one of the dozens of social networking websites that allow you to post pictures via a user-friendly interface.

 

Of course, few teens realize that any college or workplace can just look you up on the Internet and nude pictures of yourself don’t exactly spell straight-A student or employee of the month – unless you’re applying for a job at the local strip club.

 

As parents seem to grow apart from the Internet, the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington urge them to resist the tendency and learn as much as possible, in order to teach children how to protect themselves against Internet predators and how to generally be smart about sharing personal information.