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How One Text Message Can Destroy Your Teenage Life

Posted on 03/28/11 by User_image_bgMobileYouthInnovator

User_image_bg MobileYouthInnovator View Profile
Member since 1 March 2011
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  • 14 Comments

One winter day in 2010, Margarite, an 8th grade teenager living in Washington State, USA decided to send a nude cell phone picture of herself to a new boyfriend, Isaiah. What she did not know was that with a single push of the send button on her cell phone she would alter her teenage life forever.

Margarite had no idea that her new boyfriend Isaiah was also getting close with a former friend, who in a fight over Isaiah's attention, had turned into Margarite's enemy. When Isaiah recieved the photo of Maragrite he told the friend, who asked to see it. Isaiah forwarded to the friend, who then sent it to every contact on her cell phone with a message to forward it along to as many people as possible.

By the next day at school, the photo had been forwarded hundreds of times. When teachers found out, both Isaiah and the girl were taken into custody by the police, Margarite was also pulled from the school. The principal had to leave a message with every student's parent in the school about the picture and the story was featured on local news for the next month.

Isaiah and the girl who forwarded the picture were given community service and mandated to create an awareness campaign about "sexting" or sending solicit photos and messages on the cell phone. For Margarite however, her life was changed forever. She tried to change to another school 15 miles away, but the picture had been found and forwarded by a student and Margarite was taunted and teased relentelessly. Eventually Margarite decided to return to her old school, but found that she was reminded of that text message almost everyday. Even as Margarite starts to move on, the incident will be with her throughout the teenage years.

In the new digital age, we need to educate young people about "sexting" and the power of a digital footprint. A mistake made in one text message can follow you around for the rest of your life. How can we avoid other young people from making the same mistake? Please give your thoughts.

Read Margarite's full story in the New York Times

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Comments

  • on 03/29/11, by username:

    don't give your children cellphones if they have a boyfriend or girlfriend

    • on 03/30/11, by MobileYouthInnovator:

      There are a number of questions I would put to your response, which to me seems unrealistic. First, how do you define "child"? That is a fluid term and the charachters in this story are 14 years old, which many would consider young adults or teenagers. If you would read the entire New York Times story, you will also see that Margarite did not tell her parents that she had a boyfriend. I think that there are many young people who may not feel comfortable sharing all aspects of their personal life with their parents. If not cell phones, this certainly could have happened via webcam, facebook, or e-mail. Does forbidding a young person access to something many of their friends have the answer in this situation?

  • on 04/04/11, by girlygirl200:

    Why would that person do that. i know that she didn't know that alot of people were going to forward the picture. but she will never know who got that. And i bet when her teachers got the message she got in sooooooooooo much trouble. i used to have a boyfriend and it was behind my parents back. it turned out he wasn't the guy i thought he was. that is just disturbing.she mite have felt uncomfortable just to be with her parents, or she gets in trouble alot. just because you like preson doesn't mean you have to date them. Why DID SHE DO THAT?

  • on 04/05/11, by Linh Nguyen:

    Just give Margarite a chance. She's young and she was doing that only on the spur of the moment. Now she regrets and ís trying to move on. Isn't that enough? I think she deserves another chance!

  • on 04/09/11, by jkcarillo:

    A solid parent-child relationship could have prevented this. First of all, if this girl had proper guidance from her own parents about relationships then this would have never happened. I know young teenagers like to keep things behind their own parents back. I used to do that too but establishing some kind of relationship with your own child is still very important. Even if it's just a small talk with him or her it's still good enough. To able to know how her or his life is and who he or she is hanging out with. Make them feel comfortable to talk about their life to you. This girl in the article just needed proper guidance from her loved ones - her family.

  • on 04/11/11, by the_ender:

    I think it's less about plotting to stop children from doing this kinds of things than raising them differently to begin with. I'm not trying to imply that the girl's parents did not raise her well; I'm sure they did. But if children are taught from a young age to respect their bodies, would they ever do these things? Would parents need to be overly protective?

  • in the not-too-distant future, by a New User: