Manickchand warns schoolgirls against ‘sexting’

Dec 12, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News- Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Wednesday warned young people particularly females against sharing nude photos and videos to persons who she said may later expose them in the public domain.

Manickchand related this during a live video message on her Facebook page focusing on, “Never give up your power over who sees you.” While describing the sharing of nude photos and videos as an issue causing significant harm to many young people, the Education Minister urged persons to not fall prey to such instances. Even though it affects a large number, she emphasised that, for her, even one person suffering is too many. “When you are in safe places like your bedroom or your sitting room or your home where you feel like you’re private and you feel safe and you feel like you are anonymous, a sense of anonymity that the phone gives you, you can do things that you wouldn’t ordinarily do in public,” Manickchand said.

The practice of creating and sharing sexual images via technological devices, known as sexting, has received attention in the past years, especially due to the increase of adolescent engagement in this behaviour. Although consensual ‘sexting’ is not prima facie a crime, as some research has shown, it has the potential to be a risky behaviour, and a threshold to get exposure to dangerous kinds of victimization as sextortion, online grooming or cyberbullying, the US National Library of Medicine has said in a paper. Additionally, UNICEF has said that while information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet have become an integral part of modern life, and play an important role in the educational and social development of children, they also expose children to new and evolving forms of sexual exploitation. According to the organization, child sexual exploitation has soared in recent years as reflected by the ever-increasing production and distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) due to the use of more advanced ICTs by perpetrators. UNICEF said according to police reports, the number of CSAM now in circulation is staggering. Practices such as ‘sexting’ (the self-production and sharing of sexualised messages or images) also place children at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation.

Harm

Manickchand for her part observed that ‘sexting’ happens quite frequently and wanted others to consider it thoughtfully and with awareness. She related that she has seen individuals, particularly young people, taking pictures or videos of their naked or semi-naked bodies, either stills or videos and sending them to people they believe are friends or would respect their privacy. However, she has witnessed how these images and videos have been used to harm young people, especially girls.

“When you take pictures and videos and you send it to anyone, you give up a whole lot of power so the first thing you should do if you wanted to take pictures and videos is to ask yourself, how you will feel if this was on a billboard, you had to pass and see or how you would feel if it was exposed on the internet?” the minister noted.

She underscored that these are important questions because many young people have trusted others with intimate photos, only to be hurt when those images were misused. The Education Minister stressed that in any instances if a person is tempted to share such images, think twice, as it can cause significant harm. However, if it had already been done, don’t worry since, “The world is not at an end and you will be fine.”

“If you have done that and anyone is blackmailing you or threatening you with the usage of those pictures, you just let us know (Authorities) and we will, make sure that they don’t have that power over you,” Manickchand said.

Manickchand further pointed out that once shared, even with someone who seems that they can be trusted, the sender automatically loses control over whether the photos or videos can be published. “So I want to ask you to be conscious not to do that … not to use your devices in ways that can hurt you and to be conscious when you are doing that. Anyone asking you for videos and photographs probably doesn’t have any good intention or wouldn’t ask you in the first place and put you in those positions,” the Education Minister said. Importantly, she said that sharing, posting, or reposting nude videos and photos of someone without their permission is a crime under many laws, and it can lead to significant trouble. It’s important to be aware of the harm this can cause and to avoid doing it, Minister Manickchand stressed.

(Manickchand warns schoolgirls against ‘sexting’)

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• nude, photos, school girls, video, young people

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