Dangers of sexting: How should parents teach teens?

Two parents in British Columbia have been charged with assault for hitting their 14-year-old daughter after she sentnude images of herself to her boyfriend.

• 'Spanking' over nude Snapchat photo leads to conviction

In his decision, the judge wrote that the parents' use of a plastic minihockey stick and a skipping rope to "spank" the girl was not reasonable and amounted to excessive corporal punishment.

But the judge also wrote:"In this day and age, anyreasonable parent would be concerned about a teenager sending nude pictures of him or herself via a cellphone or any other electronic device. The pitfalls and dangers of such activities are well-reported. Such behaviours can lead to bullying and even suicide."

Given those concerns, what do you think is the proper way to teach kids about the dangers of sexting?

Here is some of the parentingadvice readers shared in our latest CBC Forumalive, hosted discussion about stories of national interest.

(Please note that usernames are not necessarily the names of commenters. Some comments have been altered to correct spelling and to conform to CBC style. Click on the username to see the comment in the blog format.)

"Maybe parents need to turn the tables and ask their children what they think the outcome would be if they, the parents, were to have similar photos floating around out there in cyberspace." Nadine Schultz-Nielsen

"In my opinion, there's no need to focus specifically on sexting. If you make an effort to teach your children about cause and effect, and consequences of action at a young age, they will naturally apply that knowledge to sexting. Z Gates

"Hitting kids isn't any more permissible than hitting adults. Kids aren't less human than adults, and if you hit them you should be legally charged." mettamudita

"Accountability and empathy is giving youth room to own up to their behaviour, discuss why they did it, create alternatives to the behaviourand following up with them periodically to see how it's going. samson.joneth@gmail.com

"There are a lot of reasons why teenagers in particular feel the need to commodifytheir own body, not the least of which isincredible social pressure that sexy equalsvaluable. This, of course, is a broad social problem and requires a broad social reaction. To focus solely on sexting is to miss the forest for the trees." jt

"I think the solution lies in looking at our values as a society, because I feel like women are being valued as sexual objects more and more by society and that has become the norm." Northman77

"The best way to deal with it,in my opinion, isto teach kids that nothingon the internet is private. That nude pic you send today may end up in their parents' mailbox tomorrow." Jerod

"If the child refuses to behave or listen, having examples of tragic outcomes forothers doing the same thing would be my next step. If nothing convinces the kid to stop, professional help (for all) would be appropriate." OldSchool

"Education about this with your children starts long before they even get the phone et cetera. Doing your utmost to raise a confident child, who doesn't feel the need for approval and (the wrong kind of) attention from someone else is the best thing you can do."legomum

Read the full discussion below.

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