March 6 1009: 18-year-old Jesse Logan took her own life after a nude picture of her was passed around by e-mail. TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks to her mom, Cynthia Logan, and Internet safety expert Parry Aftab about the dangers of “sexting.”

By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 9:26 a.m. ET, Fri., March. 6, 2009

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29546030/

The image was blurred and the voice distorted, but the words spoken by a young Ohio woman are haunting. She had sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When they broke up, he sent them to other high school girls. The girls were harassing her, calling her a slut and a whore. She was miserable and depressed, afraid even to go to school.

And now Jesse Logan was going on a Cincinnati television station to tell her story. Her purpose was simple: “I just want to make sure no one else will have to go through this again.”

The interview was in May 2008. Two months later, Jessica Logan hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 18.
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Sexetc
www.sexetc.org

Sex education by teens, for teens.
 
Connect Safely
www.connectsafely.org

ConnectSafely is for parents, teens, educators, advocates – everyone engaged in and interested in the impact of the social Web. The user-driven, all-media, multi-platform, fixed and mobile social Web is a big part of young people’s lives, and this is the central space – linked to from social networks across the Web – for learning about safe, civil use of Web 2.0 together. ConnectSafely.org is a project of Tech Parenting Group, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, Calif., and Salt Lake City, Utah. The forum is co-directed by Larry Magid of SafeKids.com and Anne Collier of NetFamilyNews.org, co-authors of MySpace Unraveled: What It Is and How to Use It Safely. (Peachpit Press, Berkeley, Calif., July 2006).
 
Enough is Enough
www.enough.org

Enough Is Enough (EIE), a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, emerged in 1994 as the national leader on the front lines to make the Internet safer for children and families. Since then, EIE has pioneered and led the effort to confront online pornography, child pornography, child stalking and sexual predation with innovative initiatives and effective communications.
 
Family Online Safety Institute
www.fosi.org

The Family Online Safety Institute works to make the online world safer for kids and their families by identifying and promoting best practice, tools and methods in the field of online safety, that also respect free expression. We do this through the development of public policy, technology, education and special events. FOSI is a trusted convener, bringing together leaders in government, industry and the nonprofit sectors to collaborate and innovate new solutions in child safety in a Web 2.0 world.

The Family Online Safety Institute is an International, non-profit membership organization dedicated to working to develop a safer Internet. There are four pillars to the work of the Institute; these are events, public policy, technology and education.
 
GetNetWise
www.getnetwise.org

GetNetWise is a public service brought to you by Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations to help ensure that Internet users have safe, constructive, and educational or entertaining online experiences. The GetNetWise coalition wants Internet users to be just “one click away” from the resources they need to make informed decisions about their and their family’s use of the Internet. GetNetWise is a project of the Internet Education Foundation.
 
Internet Keep Safe Coalition
www.ikeepsafe.org

The Internet Keep Safe Coalition is a broad partnership of governors and/or first spouses, attorneys general, public health and educational professionals, law enforcement, and industry leaders working together for the health and safety of youth online. iKeepSafe® uses these unique partnerships to disseminate safety resources to families worldwide.

Mission
To give parents, educators, and policymakers the information and tools which empower them to teach children the safe and healthy use of technology and the Internet.
 
iSafe
www.isafe.org

i-SAFE Inc. is the worldwide leader in Internet safety education. Founded in 1998 and endorsed by the U.S. Congress, i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experiences of youth everywhere. i-SAFE incorporates classroom curriculum with dynamic community outreach to empower students, teachers, parents, law enforcement, and concerned adults to make the Internet a safer place.
 
LOOKBOTHWAYS
www.look-both-ways.com

Website of Linda Criddle, author of Look Both Ways.
 
NetFamilyNews
www.netfamilynews.org

As a public service for parents, educators, and everyone interested in young people’s use of technology, NetFamilyNews is the “community newspaper” of a vital interest community. Founded in 1999, it has become the journal-of-record on all aspects of youth and technology and is the only high-frequency news service of its kind in the English-speaking world, serving readers in more than 50 countries.

NetFamilyNews is based on the premise that informed, engaged parenting is essential to kids’ constructive use of technology. With the advent of Web 2.0, or the social Web, that has never been more true. We all have arrived at the everywhere, all-the-time, multimedia, multidevice, downloadable and uploadable, user-driven Internet. On this Internet, the best protections our highly mobile Net users have is the filter between their ears and their engaged, informed parents. That’s why I started NetFamilyNews, with several editions for busy readers: an email newsletter and daily blog and newsfeed.
 
NetSmartz.org
www.netsmartz.org

A website run by The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) — The Nation’s Resource Center for Child Protection.
 
SafetyClicks
www.safetyclicks.com

A resource for online families from AOL.
 
WebWiseKids
www.webwisekids.org

Web Wise Kids is a unique organization that offers fun, challenging and interactive simulations based on real-life criminal cases—MISSING, Mirror Image and Airdogs. Each program has been designed specifically for use with young people in classrooms and computer labs and is guaranteed to be easy to use and flexible with your classroom schedule (special versions of our programs are also available for home use). Best of all, our programs succeed at getting the message across without “another lecture.”

Web Wise Kids is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in Southern California. Since 2000, Web Wise Kids has been committed to preventing online child victimization by providing innovative and effective tools to assist youth to stay safe online.
 
WiredSafety
www.wiredsafety.org

WiredSafety.org is a 501(c) (3) charity and the largest and oldest online safety, education, and help group in the world. Originating in 1995 as a group of volunteers rating websites, it now provides one-to-one help, extensive information, and education to cyberspace users of all ages on a myriad of Internet and interactive technology safety issues. These services are offered through a worldwide organization comprised entirely of volunteers who administer specialized websites and programs. WiredSafety.org volunteers range in age from 18 to 80 and run the gamut from TV personalities, teachers, law enforcement officers, PhD’s, writers and librarians to stay-at-home moms, retired persons, and students. WiredSafety.org’s founder and Executive Director, cyberlawyer Parry Aftab, is also an unpaid volunteer. With the exception of its TeenAngels, outreach, law enforcement training and speaking programs, all work and help is provided online and free of charge.
 

“Sexting” Shockingly Common Among Teens

Jan. 15, 2009(CBS/ AP) While it may be shocking, the practice 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 a Texas eighth-grader spent the night in a juvenile detention center 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 (pdf) by the National Campaign to Support Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

“This is a serious felony. They could be facing many years in prison,” CBS News legal analyst Lisa Bloom said of the six teens in Pennsylvania.

But, Bloom added, “What are we going to do, lock up 20 percent of America’s teens?”

Police in Greensburg, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, say the girls are 14 or 15 and the boys charged with receiving the photos are 16 or 17. None are being identified because most criminal cases in Pennsylvania juvenile courts are not public.

Police say they first learned about the pictures in October. They say a student had a phone turned on in class, a violation of school policy, which prompted an administrator to confiscate the phone and subsequently find the pictures, reports CBS station KDKA-TV.

Powerful video from www.netsmartz.org educating teenagers and children on the dangers inherent in cell phone and Internet communication. Every parent should show this to their child before allowing them to have a cell phone or actively participate in social networks online.

If you’re the parent of a teen, it’s the topic that you dread. Parent TV explores the subject of teens and sex. From the internet to “sexting”, technology has opened a new arena for teens to explore and engage in sex. Also talks about a website, www.sexetc.org, which is run by teens for teens.

KPTV’s Kevin Coari reports on teens sending explicit photos of themselves on their cell phones, called ’sexting’.

Source: KPTV
Added On May 3, 2008

Rusty McGuire, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney for Louisa County, Virginia joined Julie Bragg and Greg McQuade of “Virginia This Morning” to discuss the dangers of sexting. Parents with teenagers should watch this video and pass this on to their friends.

A news report on teenagers who have actually been arrested for sexting!

Do you know what your teen is saying via text message? 33 News (Dallas/Fort Worth) investigates the newest phenomenon in flirting called “sexting.” Parents find equally high tech ways to snoop such as using the Cell Phone Spy Data Extractor (http://www.BrickHouseSecurity.com) to find out exactly what they’re kids are saying and doing.