THIS IS the fourth and final installment in what has turned out, inadvertently I should add, to be a series on young people and modern communication technology.

In the first ‘installment’, which I intended to be a ‘one-off,’ I examined how the new technology impacted young people, how it ‘transformed’ stuff that young people have been doing probably since the beginning of

recorded history.

That generated such an overwhelming response that I had it run two weeks. The second article focused specifically on the more or less specific concept of social networking, and while the response to that was good, it was basically me writing about something that I wasn’t familiar enough with to communicate as effectively as possible with my audience.
Older readers in particular sent me some mails querying some of the concepts I’d used, especially those that dealt with Facebook.
Last week’s article was an attempt at responding to those queries, explaining some of the basic elements of the social network. And the general feedback that I received was positive.
This week, I want to deal with a specific but related issue; that of the phenomenon called ‘sexting.’ I suppose the best point of entry I can conceive of for this piece is an e-mail a friend sent me, the main point of which was to bring my attention to a segment of some show aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) which dealt with this most recent of ‘techno-social’ issues.
The term — an obvious contraction or bringing together of ‘sex’ and ‘texting’ — has recently become mainstream, for reasons both relatively run-of-the-mill and notorious.
For example, it’s not uncommon for the celebrity pages of our local newspapers — this one included — to carry some story about some movie star and musician ‘sexting’ each other.
According to the Online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, arguably the most reliable source for most things to do with the technology that this generation thrives on, “Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones.”

‘I frankly think nothing short of fanatical religious fundamentalist type oppression has a chance of slowing it down, not stopping it, mind you. As a parent, all I can say is that the two things that have worked for good parents throughout history need to be applied here, granted with much greater intensity: vigilance and understanding’

In the first article in this series, I mentioned a story surrounding an incident at an otherwise reputable senior secondary school, where two young people recorded some sexual activity using a mobile phone.
While it was said that the video was accessed on the young man’s computer, reports were that it was spread among other students by way of mobile phone. This represents the more notorious side to the phenomenon, both in terms of degree of graphicness as well as the persons involved. Two adults engaging in what is decidedly adult behaviour is one thing; but it’s different if two minors are involved.
In researching this article, I found a rather interesting report Online on the CBS website:
“While it may be shocking,” the piece begins, “the practise of ‘sexting’ — sending nude pictures via text message — is not unusual, especially for high schoolers around the country. This week, three teenage girls, who allegedly sent nude or semi-nude cell-phone pictures of themselves and three male classmates in a western Pennsylvania high school who received them, are charged with child pornography. In October 2010, a Texas eighth-grader spent the night in a juvenile detention centre after his football coach found a nude picture on his cell-phone that a fellow student sent him. Roughly 20 percent of teens admit to participating in ‘sexting’, according to a nationwide survey by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.”
Now, I am the last person to take data from another jurisdiction and simply transplant it here to prove some point about correlation, even in the light of relevant data here being absent.
That said, I think it’s reasonable to expect that, in light of the fact that American culture so heavily influences our own, and because of the level of penetration of cheap mobile phone technology in Guyana, it can be reasonably safe to speculate that a significant number of local teenagers either have been involved in ‘sexting’ themselves or have been exposed to ‘sexted’ material.
While in the first article, I made the point that our reaction to the effects of the new technology needs to be reasoned and objective, that we need to respond to these developments within the context of the generational gap, there are things that need to be dealt with ‘swiftly and condignly’, even as we are keeping an open mind.
The advent of ‘sexting’ is a particularly dangerous trend when it comes to the moral decline – and there has been, as even the most liberal of people would admit, a decline – that is affecting our society.
When, in my formative years in the early 1980s, if you found a pornographic magazine, that was like a treasure for teenage boys, and even a few girls if I remember correctly. I’m not saying me, mind you, but someone in possession of one would make it last for years. In the late eighties, even among adults, pornographic VHS tapes were probably worth their weight in silver or some other semi-precious metal at least. In the late nineties, teens were able to access some pornographic websites, and then suddenly a lot more as the millennium changed. Now, worse than even the access to pornography online, our teenagers now have the means of pornographic production as well as its dissemination, literally at their fingertips.
Literally, any teenage child with a camera phone is a potential porn director and actor or actress, and that – in a culture bombarded by sex and sexual messages – cannot be a good thing. Again, I can’t offer any detailed solution to this problem. I frankly think nothing short of fanatical religious fundamentalist type oppression has a chance of slowing it down, not stopping it, mind you. As a parent, all I can say is that the two things that have worked for good parents throughout history need to be applied here, granted with much greater intensity: vigilance and understanding.
Finally, I would like to signal my intention to take the series back towards another subject area: The international scene. In the past two months or so, a wave of protests have swept the Middle East and Africa, the Arab world to be precise, a series of uprisings against oppressive regimes, specifically those of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen.
My observation, which I will expand upon in next week’s piece, has to do with the hypocrisy of the West in its reaction – or reactions, rather – to these popular revolutions. In summary, what I’ve seen are contrasting responses, from one country in particular, to what is by any measure the same phenomenon – when the people of Libya rose up against Gadaffi, we heard strong words of support and encouragement, as well as reports of alleged clandestine logistical aid given to rebels; two days ago, 30 protestors were slaughtered in Bahrain, with hundreds of others injured, and we are yet to hear anything close to outrage against the regime, or support for the people protesting.
The enormous blunders made in Iraq can still be considered a part of fairly recent history as well as, in some aspects, current affairs. Whenever the dust settles, the story of Iraq will be one of the measurement of a few thousands of lives lost under the dictatorship, a dictatorship marked by relative social order, against over one hundred thousand casualties and counting against a backdrop of ongoing sectarian violence, the latter after the removal of the dictator and the introduction of so-called freedom.
Next week, a lot more on convenience and inconsistency in the promotion of democracy across the world today.

(By Keith Burrowes)