For Your Eyes Only, Sweetie
No one above the age of nine thinks of Vanessa Hudgens as the cute teen Disney starlet anymore. Instead, she is more well-known as the girl who texted naked pictures of herself to her now ex-boyfriend.
Following the scandal, parents were outraged and demanded that Disney executives punish the actress for her appalling actions. They could not idly stand by and have their kids watch this glorified slut make millions singing and dancing on television when her nude pictures were floating around all over the Internet.
However, parents would have probably been more horrified to learn that this practice of “sexting,” or sending explicit photos or texts, is a new word common among teenagers. Not just the celebrities who act the part.
About 20 percent of teens surveyed by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy admitted to regularly “sexting.” Many think of it as harmless, but it’s actually a felony. Offenders can be charged with producing, possessing, and distributing child pornography which can result in a jail sentence.
Teens these days don’t think about the consequences of their actions. It takes virtually no effort to send these explicit messages and photos, and requires only a “re-send” button to forward it. Messages meant to be seen by one’s eyes can easily be instantly relayed to anybody with a cell phone and can be nearly impossible to delete once it is posted online, lurking on anyone’s desktop. Having to deal with hundreds of peers knowing what you look like naked is not only devastatingly humiliating but socially, emotionally and mentally damaging.
Just ask Hudgens who has been called every variation of the word “whore” and worse. It has damaged her reputation and compromised her career, which is a situation easily applicable to all college-bound students. There have been many cases in which students have found their college acceptances revoked because of inappropriate material discovered on their online profiles. One lapse in judgment and the Dean from your dream college knows what’s underneath your clothes.
Hudgens managed to recover and star in a few more movies since her photo scandals because Hollywood is Hollywood. Breaking news gets old fast, but in the real world, you may not be so lucky.
Yvonne Lee
Co-Editor-in-Chief