ADOLECENTES ADEREM AO "SEXTING" E POSTAM FOTOS SENSUAIS NA INTERNET

Meninas e meninos de 12 a 17 anos buscam fama virtual em sites.

Fenômeno preocupa Promotoria e polícia pelo risco de pornografia.


Em busca da fama virtual, adolescentes de 12 a 17 anos estão aderindo cada vez mais ao “sexting”. O fenômeno criado por jovens nos EUA há cerca de cinco anos chegou recentemente ao Brasil.

O termo é originado da união de duas palavras em inglês: “sex” (sexo) e “texting” (envio de mensagens).

Para praticar o “sexting”, meninos e meninas produzem e enviam fotos sensuais de seus corpos nus ou seminus usando celulares, câmeras fotográficas, contas de e-mail, salas de bate-papo, comunicadores instantâneos e sites de relacionamentos.

Os adeptos também mandam mensagens de texto eróticas no celular ou internet com convites e insinuações sexuais para namorados, “ficantes”, paqueras, pretendentes ou amigos.

A prática preocupa representantes da Polícia Civil, do Ministério Público de São Paulo e entidades civis de preservação dos direitos humanos na internet ouvidos pelo G1. Todos alertam para o risco da pornografia infantil e prostituição.

Vejo isso como um perigo muito grande. O pedófilo percebe isso e começa a aganhar intimidade"
Tales de Oliveira, promotor

O pedófilo ou o aliciador percebe isso e começa a ganhar intimidade. Isso acaba sendo porta para prostituição”, afirmou o promotor Tales de Oliveira.

Bastam alguns cliques para ver adolescentes em poses provocantes, se exibindo em imagens postadas por eles mesmos em álbuns de fotos, sites pessoais e vídeos. Vale tudo para chamar a atenção.

As meninas ficam só de lingerie ou biquíni, agarram ou beijam amigas na boca, mostram closes de decotes ousados e até autografam os próprios seios com o nome de suas páginas ou de colegas. Os garotos preferem ficar de cuecas, sem camisa, ou abraçar garotas simulando atos sexuais. Em outros casos, jovens chegam a ficar nus.

Com preços acessíveis, uma máquina digital ou celular com câmera não são mais exclusividade de filhos da classe média. Por conta disso, é quase impossível contabilizar o número de praticantes do exibicionismo juvenil. Segundo a Safernet Brasil (organização da sociedade civil sem fins lucrativos que atua na proteção e promoção dos direitos humanos na internet), quem mais acessa a rede mundial de computadores é o jovem entre 16 e 24 anos, o que representa 78% do total de internautas no país.

Neste universo, ganha fama quem tiver mais acessos no seu fotolog, Orkut e YouTube. Outra maneira de ser popular é vencer os concursos virtuais promovidos pelos sites. Depois disso, a celebridade instantânea irá contar com fã-clubes e uma legião de seguidores.

A reportagem entrou em contato com o provedor responsável por hospedar os sites que disponibilizam os serviços de fotos e vídeos na internet. Segundo a assessoria de imprensa do Google, “os conteúdos considerados impróprios podem ser denunciados pelos usuários".

"Já os de pornografia e os que ferem direitos autorais são removidos.”Segundo a Safernet Brasil, dados da Central Nacional de Denúncias de Crimes Cibernéticos mostram que a pornografia infantil lidera o número de denúncias no país. Foram mais de 2 mil entre 1º de março a 1º de abril deste ano.

Internet, celular, máquina digital: estas tecnologias potencializam algo típico da adolescência"
Rodrigo Nejm, diretor de prevenção da Safernet
“Internet, celular, máquina digital. Estas tecnologias potencializaram algo típico da adolescência. É preciso discutir sexualidade na família e na escola para que ele não vire sexo precoce depois”, disse o psicólogo Rodrigo Nejm, diretor de prevenção da Safernet.

O artigo 241 do Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente (ECA) define o que é pornografia infantil: “Para efeito dos crimes previstos nesta lei, a expressão “cena de sexo explícito ou pornográfica” compreende qualquer situação que envolva criança ou adolescente em atividades sexuais explícitas, reais ou simuladas, ou exibição dos órgãos genitais de uma criança ou adolescente para fins primordialmente sexuais”.

A Safernet tem trabalhado na formação de mais de 4 mil educadores no Brasil. São aplicadas sugestões de exercício nas salas de aula para trabalhar esse tema. Ao receber as denúncias de sexting como pornografia infantil, os responsáveis pela entidade as encaminham para a Polícia Federal e para o Ministério Público Federal.

Vício virtualEm um dos sites de fotolog visitados pele reportagem na quarta, havia mais de 465 mil páginas pessoais. Até as 13h, mais de 8 mil fotos tinham sido postadas.As regras de uma das comunidades não permitem postar fotos contendo, por exemplo: “lingerie, cueca, calcinha ou sutiã”; “zoom ou close-up em decotes ou em outras parte sexualmente apelativas do corpo”; entre outros.

Mas, apesar das restrições, a mesma comunidade tem fotos de garotas de 15 e 16 anos de biquíni em frente a espelhos ou cobrindo os seios apenas com as mãos. Algumas páginas pessoais têm música. Numa delas, era possível escutar uma com letras de cunho sexual enquanto a foto de uma garota de 17 anos, usando fio dental, tremia.

“O site faz esse alerta [de regras] apenas como forma de amanhã ou depois se isentar de qualquer responsabilidade. Se a pessoa foi contra a regra do jogo, eu não tenho culpa. Essa é sempre a alegação deles”, afirmou o promotor Tales de Oliveira, da Infância e Juventude.

Ainda pelos termos de uso dos álbuns de fotos, o dono da página pode permitir que o visitante escreva comentários em cada imagem que foi postada. Uma menina de 14 anos que mostra os seios espremidos por um sutiã foi chamada de “delícia” por um internauta.

Postar fotos de crianças nuas é crimeSegundo a delegada Catarina Buquê, da Delegacia de Crimes Eletrônicos do Departamento de Investigações sobre Crime Organizado (Deic), a postagem de fotos sensuais de adolescentes tem de ser investigada com cuidado. “Pode ser uma gama de crimes, como pode não ser também”, afirmou a delegada.

“Fotos nuas de adolescentes são material pornográfico, é crime. Mas fotos sensuais de adolescentes têm de ser analisadas caso a caso. Às vezes o adolescente trabalha como modelo e tem a autorização dos pais para publicar essas imagens na internet. Ou às vezes não.

Pode ser que alguém tenha pego essas fotos provocantes e divulgado sem a autorização do jovem. Pode ser que uma menina tenha mandado a foto para um namorado ou um paquera e ele a distribuiu sem o consentimento da garota”.

G1.com

Cultura importada dos EUA, veja os TEXTOS

SEXTING
“It’s the voyeur in you … it’s the voyeur in me.”
Sexting (a portmanteau of sex and texting) is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between mobile phones. reported as early as 2005 in the Sunday Telegraph Magazine, and has since been described as taking place worldwide. It has been reported in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., and Canada. In a 2008 survey of 1,280 teenagers and young adults of both sexes on Cosmogirl.com sponsored by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20% of teens (13-19) and 33% of young adults (20-26) had sent nude or semi-nude photographs of themselves electronically. Additionally, 39% of teens and 59% of young adults had sent sexually explicit text messages. This Technological trend can lead to tragic consequences. Sexting — using cell phones to send explicitly sexual photos — is a growing teenage trend with potentially devastating results. That one split-second click can have lifelong consequences ranging from public humiliation to felony charges and a place on the sex offender registry.
“So much of what goes on is through e-mail, Facebook, cell phones … and part of being a teenager is not thinking your actions through,” said Julie Ohana, social worker at Frankel Jewish Academy and director of School-Based Services for Jewish Family Service in West Bloomfield. “It’s our job to educate them and make them aware so they can make good decisions.”When private communications suddenly become public, serious legal ramifications, significant emotional harm, and, in some cases, even death, can result. In the past 18 months, two teenage girls — one in Florida and one in Ohio — committed suicide after suffering intense ridicule and humiliation when their ex-boyfriends played a vengeful game of “show-and-tell” with sexually explicit photos the girls had sent while they were dating.

Sexting: Harmless fad or a criminal act?
Submitted by voicesweb on June 3, 2009 - 3:59am

by Lucy Green, Photos and Cover by Doug Bauman
In an April episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” a pretty blond 15-year-old walks down a hall in her high school, looking increasingly bewildered.
“We all love you, Kim,” one boy says to her.
“And we’ve seen what he loves,” another hisses.
“Hey Kim, wanna borrow my Wonderbra?” a girl taunts.
“When’s the next show?” shouts a grinning boy.
“Who else are you putting out for?” a girl asks, glowering in disgust.
Eventually, Kim finds out that everyone in the school has seen the nude photographs Kim took of herself and sent via text message to her boyfriend.
It’s easy to pass off the episode as television doing what television does best: sensationalizing, dramatizing, transporting us to a fictional world that seems real for 60 minutes and then depositing us on our couches with a satisfying conclusion.
But the drama in this crime drama is one that is unfolding in the lives of teenagers across America, albeit more subtly, and the crime Kim was charged with — possession and distribution of child pornography — is one with which some Pennsylvania teenagers have actually been charged.
Twenty-two percent of teen girls and 18 percent of teen boys have “sexted” — texted or posted online nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves — according to a voluntary online survey commissioned and published by the Nation Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (NCPTUP).
Evon Onusic, a senior at State College Area High School, said the ratio is higher among the teens he knows — more like three in five.
Onusic said among his peer group, girls are more likely to send “sexts” than boys — although boys are more likely to solicit them.
“Most of the time the guys lie to [the girls] until they feel secure enough,” Onusic explained. “Then they ask for a favor just this one time, and she’s kind of flattered.”
“In my experience, for guys… it’s kind of like a game,” Onusic said. “It’s like, ‘Oh man, I got this girl to send me this.’ It’s an alpha-dog thing.”
Mandy, a junior at State High, said she has not sent or received a sext but that she knows girls who have.
“The girls mainly do it as an attention thing,” Mandy said. “[They] are doing it to impress that one guy or keep that guy from being with another girl.”
The data provided by NCPTUP’s survey corroborates both students’ explanations. Fifty-one percent of teen girls said pressure from a boy is a reason girls send sexy pictures or messages, and 85 percent of teens said girls send them to get or keep a boy’s attention.
The survey revealed other motivations for sexting, which included to give a sexy present to a boyfriend or girlfriend, to feel sexy, to be fun or flirtatious, to get positive feedback and to get noticed.
The acceptability and widespread incidence of sexting are dictated by peer perception, said Sameer Hinduja, an associate professor in the department of criminology and criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University and a member of the Research Advisory Board for Harvard’s Internet Safety Technical Task Force.
“Kids are experimenting and testing boundaries,” Hinduja said. “[They] are trying to present themselves in a light that brings them attention.”
“When we as researchers look across a MySpace profile, we see that pictures of ‘me in a bikini’ and ‘me in a sexually suggestive position’ get so many more comments [than non-sexual pictures],” Hinduja said. “[These pictures] bring them the attention they want.”
But sexting isn’t just a naïve adolescent craze; it has a dark side.
Sexting can degenerate into cyber-bullying when images are shared with people for whom they are not intended, Hinduja said.
Emily, an eighth grader at Mount Nittany Middle School, saw the unintended consequences of sexting after one of her friends texted a picture of herself — from the bottom of her bra to the top of her head — to a male student at her school.
“[She sent it] to one of her close guy friends, and it was meant just for him, but he shared it with all of his friends,” Emily said. “Every time a guy that had seen it looked at her, they’d look at her weird and chuckle.”
Onusic, who has been the involuntary recipient of sexts, said problems often arise when a girl breaks up with her boyfriend and, as a form of revenge, he forwards nude images she sent him.
“When [these photos] spread around school, you see the social breakdown,” he said. “All the girl cliques exclude her and make fun of her and call her a whore.”
This scenario actually played out at Sycamore High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the spring of 2008. When senior Jesse Logan and her boyfriend broke up, he sent the nude photographs she had texted him to other high school girls.
After months of harassment, Logan gave an interview to a local NBC affiliate, hoping to “make sure no one will have to go through this again.”
The harassment continued, and on July 3, 2008, she hanged herself in her closet.
“She snapped,” her mother, Cynthia Logan, told MSNBC’s “Today” show. “It was just too much for an 18-year-old girl to go through.”
In the wake of this incident, school administrators everywhere are scrambling to contain sexting, and local prosecutors are taking action or threatening to take action against students in possession of nude or partially nude images of minors.
Last October, an administrator at a high school in Greensburg, Pa., confiscated the cell phone of a student who had his phone turned on in class, according to a released statement by the Greensburg Salem School District.
Upon discovering an “inappropriate image” on the cell phone, the administrator turned the phone over to the police, who launched an investigation and subsequently confiscated more phones.
In January, three girls, ages 14 to 15, were charged with manufacturing, possessing or disseminating child pornography, and their three boyfriends, ages 16 to 17, were charged with possession of child pornography.
School officials in Tunkhannock Area School District in Wyoming County, Pa., also confiscated several cell phones last October. After finding images of scantily clad, semi-nude and nude teenage girls, the officials turned the phones over to District Attorney George Skumanick, who launched a criminal investigation.
According to a Memorandum of Law for the case later brought against Skumanick, he sent letters to approximately 20 parents of high school students in February, informing them that their children were being investigated for possessing and/or distributing child pornography and that charges would be filed against students who did not participate in a six- to nine-month program focused on education and counseling.
All but three of the students agreed to participate in the education program, which would include writing a paper on what they did and why it was wrong.
The parents of the three remaining students, all female, filed suit against Skumanick, and in March a judge issued a restraining order and barred Skumanick from filing charges against the girls — two of whom had photographed themselves from the waist up in white opaque bras, and one of whom had been pictured with a towel wrapped around her just below her breasts.
The judge, U.S. District Judge James Munley, said Skumanick’s actions would have violated the First Amendment freedom of speech and parental rights enumerated in the 14th Amendment.
Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira has not had a sexting case come across his desk yet, but he said, “I take very seriously the responsibility of doing what I can to prevent it.”
Since the end of March, he has given presentations at every Centre County high school and some Centre County middle schools about the social and legal consequences of sexting. In April, a letter warning of the same dangers went home with report cards to parents of middle school and high school students.
Madeira gave his presentation to a group of about 15 parents, students and teachers May 6 at Philipsburg-Osceola Senior High School.
He displayed a Britney Spears album cover, an underwear advertisement featuring Mario Lopez and an advertisement for the television show “Desperate Housewives.”
“Our culture says we can sell things with sex, we can talk about sex — it’s no big deal,” Madeira said. “But [when it comes to sexting], once you hit ‘Send,’ you lose control of the image.”
Madeira explained that nude or semi-nude images could wind up in the hands of parents, prevent someone from getting hired for a job, cause a student not to be accepted into a university or preclude someone from getting a security clearance for the police force or military.
He then described the Pennsylvania laws under which sexting falls: Section 6312 of the Crimes Code relating to Sexual Abuse of Children and Section 5903 relating to Obscene and Other Materials, violations of which are felonies of the second or third degree.
“The only more serious crimes are things like arson, rape or murder,” Madeira said. “Even the young person involved in creating the photo of him or herself is technically in violation of [the] law.”
Madeira said an 18-year-old senior found in possession of a nude or semi-nude photo of a 17-year-old classmate would have his name printed in the newspaper after being charged with “sexual abuse of children or obscene and other sexual materials.”
If convicted, according to Madeira, that student would then face up to 15 years in prison, 10 years as a registered sex offender and a lifelong criminal record.
Carolyn Larrabee, assistant to the district attorney, said the penalties for a minor found possessing or distributing such images would be different, as the “juvenile system is not punitative, it’s rehabilitative.”
Larrabee said that 99 percent of juvenile cases would probably need to be handled formally, rather than resolved informally. The penalties for an adjudicated delinquent (the juvenile equivalent of a convicted adult), could range from a consent decree, which involves monitoring how the delinquent is doing at school and at home, to out-of-home placement in a group home or boot camp, according to Larrabee.
Juvenile registration as a sex offender is not as automatic as it is in the adult criminal justice system, Larrabee said, but because states are being required to comply with federal mandates, juveniles will likely be required to register under certain circumstances in the future.
While Madeira said feedback from his presentation has been mostly positive, there are students, parents and experts who think the penalties for sexting don’t fit the crime.
Onusic said the penalties are “absurd” and “downright wrong.”
“If it’s a mutual thing and [students] are the same age, it shouldn’t be a matter of prosecution,” Onusic said.
Deb Ritter, the mother of two Centre County teenagers, said: “Each generation has a way of busting the chops of the prior generation. For my generation, it was posing for Playboy. In the 1950s, it was rock and roll. [Sexting] is pushing buttons, pressing something that’s taboo.”
While Ritter said she’s not worried about her daughters getting caught up in this issue, she thinks “juvenile offenders should be treated like juvenile offenders.”
“If it’s girls being silly with other girls, that’s one thing,” Ritter said. “If it’s girls being cruel to another girl, that’s another thing. It’s a many-layered issue and there shouldn’t be a blanket penalty.”
Clay Calvert, a professor of First Amendment studies in Penn State’s College of Communications, said there is a lot of media hysteria right now that is feeding the frenzy about sexting.
“The irony here is that child pornography laws are designed to protect minors from sexual abuse by adults and pedophiles, not prosecute minors,” Calvert said. “There also is the issue of whether or not a nude image of a teenager is child pornography.”
Madeira, in his presentation to students and parents said, “Simple nudity is considered by the law to be child pornography. [The minors] don’t have to be engaged in suggestive behavior.”
But according to Calvert, nudity itself is not a crime; it is actually protected by the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.
“Many parents have taken pictures of their kids in the bathtub without any clothes on,” Calvert said. “Nobody considers that child pornography.”
Calvert said that there are several factors used to determine whether a nude image of a minor qualifies as child pornography: the focal point of the visual depiction, the setting, the attire and whether the picture suggests sexual activity or a willingness to engage in sexual activity.
In fact, the law that Madeira referenced in his presentation, Section 6312, says the image must portray a one of a number of sexual acts, “lewd exhibition of the genitals” or “nudity if such nudity is depicted for the purpose of sexual stimulation or gratification of any person who might view such a depiction.”
Calvert said he thinks “volitional” or consensual sexting among peers should not be a crime, but that individuals who have deliberately tried to harm someone by distributing an image should be prosecuted.
Hinduja said that many prosecutors are having a knee-jerk reaction to stories like Jesse Logan’s.
“You have to think about motive,” Hinduja said. “There’s no prurient or perverse motive of the kids who possess these pictures. It’s a phenomenon that’s occurring, and it’s occurring in a context that needs to be considered.”
In his presentation, Madeira acknowledged the shortcomings of the law as it stands.
“The law is behind how young people use the technology,” Madeira said. “We need something less severe… something that allows us to show young people about the seriousness of their actions without giving them a felony record for the rest of their lives.”
As a member the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, Madeira said he is working with legislators to find another tool for prosecuting sexting, but he added, “right now this is the law that covers the young people creating and disseminating these photographs.”
Legislatures in several states have either passed or introduced legislation that either reduces the penalties for sexting or decriminalizes it.
In January, Nebraska lawmakers introduced a bill that provides an “affirmative defense” for teens younger than 18 who send sexts of themselves and for teens younger than 19 who receive them. This would free teens from criminal culpability, even if they admit to or are proven to have possessed or distributed child pornography. The defense would not apply to teens who forward sexts of other teens, a crime that would still be considered a felony.
Utah legislators enacted a bill in March stating that minors convicted of distributing pornographic material or dealing in material harmful to a minor are guilty of misdemeanors, although each subsequent offense would be a third-degree felony.
In March, Vermont’s senate passed a bill that protects teens under the age of 19 who knowingly and voluntarily transmit sexually explicit images of themselves or receive such images.
Ohio legislators introduced a bill in April that “prohibits a minor, by use of a telecommunications device, from recklessly creating, receiving, exchanging, sending, or possessing a photograph or other material showing a minor in a state of nudity.” The violation of that law would be the juvenile equivalent of a first-degree misdemeanor.
Despite efforts by lawmakers to reduce the legal penalties associated with sexting, some experts believe the law is not the best avenue for addressing the problem.
Hinduja, who has published a book on preventing and responding to cyber-bullying, said students will not be deterred by laws and that there are much more effective ways to discourage sexting.
“It’s very frustrating for me to see politicians and media pundits taking these platforms,” Hinduja said. “We don’t need some kind of surveillance state; we need more education and awareness of how youth behavior online has long-term ramifications.”
According to Hinduja, if parents and schools rely on laws as a quick, easy solution, “Kids [will be] afraid that if they go to an adult, they’re going to yank their technology and it will be so much worse than if they had remained silent.”
Preventing sexting needs to be a communitywide effort, not one simply left up to parents, schools or the law, Hinduja said.
“Any adult with any influence in the lives of youth has the ability to bring it up and should,” Hinduja said. “It takes a concerted effort by a bunch of people bringing up ethical and appropriate behavior.”
Hinduja has developed scenario-based exercises and peer-mentoring manuals to create awareness about cyber-bullying and is currently working on similar curricula to deal with sexting. He said there are lots of ways to bring up the negative consequences of sexting without lecturing, and he suggested having high school students talk to middle school students about the issue.
At least one Centre County high school has found a creative way to incorporate the issue of sexting into its curriculum.
Brad Parker, a junior at Bellefonte Area High School, said a second semester mini-course entitled “Teenage Trouble in America” had a unit on sexting.
“The students talked about it,” Parker said. “And an officer came in and explained the charges.”
State High junior Mandy said there had been a couple of discussions about sexting in her health class and that her family had talked about it at the dinner table.
Craig Butler, principal of the North Building at State High, said his school has a good record with parents when it comes to sexting.
In the several instances that have occurred at his school, Butler said parents have been given the prerogative to pursue prosecution, but that students caught with such images have been given an in-school suspension.
In the meantime, Madeira is going from school to school, telling students, “Look, here’s where the line is. Stay away from it. If you’ve got a photograph like that on your phone, delete it. If you know someone who has one, tell them to delete it. It you’ve sent one, go to the person you sent it to and tell them to delete it.”
In the “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” episode, Kim, clearly the victim of the spiteful bullying of other teens, was exonerated on charges of possession and distribution of child pornography.
But that is television doing what television does best.
Centre County teens found with such pictures or who are the subjects of them could face some not-so-happy endings.