Norway
A word of advice
Dear Girls Magazine
I would like to share a piece of advice with all young girls out there reading this. This is a true story that happened to me, and I wish to warn you so this will not happen to any of you as well. Nobody deserves it. It is embarrassing to expose my life like this, but if sharing my life experience can help someone else- then it is worth it.
It was Thursday evening, and I was extremely bored. You know how it is. Therefore, I went on a very popular chatting site where you can log in with username, or stay anonymous. I logged in with my account kittycat82, and started looking for someone to chat with. I received a text from an anonymous account that said “Hey beautiful. You look stunning on your profile. May I see some more pictures? I promise not to show anyone. Love Josh.”
At first, I was very insecure, and thought that it seemed like a bad idea. I told him that I was uncomfortable with sending nudes to strangers and I asked him how I could trust him. “Josh” said that I had nothing to worry about, and he was not going to show them to anyone. He kept telling me how beautiful and sexy I was, and that it was unfair to keep a body like mine to myself. I was still very unsure, but I mean- what was the worst that could happen? He was so charming, and made me feel so very confident. I was not going to send him something extremely kinky. Just a couple pictures so he could keep give me compliments, and make me feel good. Surely, he would send pictures back, and then he would not dare to show my pictures to others or post them.
So I did it. I sent him a picture of me in the mirror in underwear, and a picture of myself topless. He said that he could not believe how hot I was, and that I should send him more. I told him that before I sent something else- he would have to send me something of him. He answered “Haha.” And then he logged off. I was super stressed, and immediately started regretting my decision. How could I be so stupid? However, I tried staying positive, and thought to myself that nothing would happen to my pictures. God was I wrong.
A couple of hours later, I started getting tons of notifications and messages from my friends saying “OMG, Hanna. Is that you?” and “Have you seen what Michael posted on twitter? That is not you, right?” I logged into twitter, and saw that he had posted both of my pictures with the caption. “Well, that was easy.” And the single “Haha.” on the other one. I was crushed. Michael was an asshole! How could I have been so stupid? I wanted to sink under the ground and disappear forever. I made him take them down with threatening to call the police and the school. He took them down ten minutes later, but the damage was already done. Tons of people had seen them, and pictures never truly disappear from the internet. Going to school the next weeks was horrible. I felt like my life was ruined.
So girls. Never sext. Never send any pictures online. Especially not to strangers. You never know.
Love Hanna, 16
Dear Girls Magazine
I would like to share a piece of advice with all young girls out there reading this. This is a true story that happened to me, and I wish to warn you so this will not happen to any of you as well. Nobody deserves it. It is embarrassing to expose my life like this, but if sharing my life experience can help someone else- then it is worth it.
It was Thursday evening, and I was extremely bored. You know how it is. Therefore, I went on a very popular chatting site where you can log in with username, or stay anonymous. I logged in with my account kittycat82, and started looking for someone to chat with. I received a text from an anonymous account that said “Hey beautiful. You look stunning on your profile. May I see some more pictures? I promise not to show anyone. Love Josh.”
At first, I was very insecure, and thought that it seemed like a bad idea. I told him that I was uncomfortable with sending nudes to strangers and I asked him how I could trust him. “Josh” said that I had nothing to worry about, and he was not going to show them to anyone. He kept telling me how beautiful and sexy I was, and that it was unfair to keep a body like mine to myself. I was still very unsure, but I mean- what was the worst that could happen? He was so charming, and made me feel so very confident. I was not going to send him something extremely kinky. Just a couple pictures so he could keep give me compliments, and make me feel good. Surely, he would send pictures back, and then he would not dare to show my pictures to others or post them.
So I did it. I sent him a picture of me in the mirror in underwear, and a picture of myself topless. He said that he could not believe how hot I was, and that I should send him more. I told him that before I sent something else- he would have to send me something of him. He answered “Haha.” And then he logged off. I was super stressed, and immediately started regretting my decision. How could I be so stupid? However, I tried staying positive, and thought to myself that nothing would happen to my pictures. God was I wrong.
A couple of hours later, I started getting tons of notifications and messages from my friends saying “OMG, Hanna. Is that you?” and “Have you seen what Michael posted on twitter? That is not you, right?” I logged into twitter, and saw that he had posted both of my pictures with the caption. “Well, that was easy.” And the single “Haha.” on the other one. I was crushed. Michael was an asshole! How could I have been so stupid? I wanted to sink under the ground and disappear forever. I made him take them down with threatening to call the police and the school. He took them down ten minutes later, but the damage was already done. Tons of people had seen them, and pictures never truly disappear from the internet. Going to school the next weeks was horrible. I felt like my life was ruined.
So girls. Never sext. Never send any pictures online. Especially not to strangers. You never know.
Love Hanna, 16
Sweden
Sexting and obscene content
Eric is 15 years old. He is at the stage when you develop and try to find out who you are. It is when
you are having trouble knowing the difference between right and wrong and what you should and
should not do. Meanwhile in school, Eric has gotten some strange vibes from the new substitute
Cynthia. She is 29 years old. Eric’s friends constantly talks and joke about how they want to get it on
with her. A Friday night he gets a notification from Facebook. ’’Cynthia Johansen has sent you a
friend request. Accept or Decline?’’. He doesn’t know if he should be happy or see it as a common
thing for teachers to ad students. He doesn’t hope for the second alternative because he wants to feel
special. ’’You and Cynthia Johansen are now friends, send her a message here .’’. After constantly
chatting with each other in 2 years, their conversations have developed into sexting and naked pictures
from both sides. Erik has never felt this way for anyone, but is it right?
Eric is 15 years old. He is at the stage when you develop and try to find out who you are. It is when
you are having trouble knowing the difference between right and wrong and what you should and
should not do. Meanwhile in school, Eric has gotten some strange vibes from the new substitute
Cynthia. She is 29 years old. Eric’s friends constantly talks and joke about how they want to get it on
with her. A Friday night he gets a notification from Facebook. ’’Cynthia Johansen has sent you a
friend request. Accept or Decline?’’. He doesn’t know if he should be happy or see it as a common
thing for teachers to ad students. He doesn’t hope for the second alternative because he wants to feel
special. ’’You and Cynthia Johansen are now friends, send her a message here .’’. After constantly
chatting with each other in 2 years, their conversations have developed into sexting and naked pictures
from both sides. Erik has never felt this way for anyone, but is it right?
Greece
James - my experience of sexting
James, aged 17, talks about his experience of sexting girls. He hopes that his story will make others think before sending a sexual photo to someone.
Sexting is really pretty normal at my age. My friends and I talk very openly about our experiences within our relationships and the sort of things we’ve sent each other. It seems like everyone’s doing it.
You do sometimes get a negative reaction to something you send, like people saying they’ve ‘seen bigger’. It’s embarrassing.
I’ve seen images that have been sent to other people, or even sexual pictures of their ex partners, but I’ve never shared any myself – I don’t think it’s right.
My first experience of sexting was with a girlfriend when I was 16. She suggested it as a way to keep in touch when we were apart for a few weeks.
We started by sending sexual texts by Blackberry Messenger, then it progressed to pictures, voice notes and short videos. There are definitely risks involved. Someone saw a video message I had sent to a previous girlfriend took a screen shot and posted it online. They called me a pervert and lots of people I knew saw it – it was clearly me pictured. I was completely devastated and, to be honest, almost suicidal. I got the picture taken down eventually, but by that stage people had ‘unfriended’ me and the damage was done.
I do worry about who is behind the phones of the people I sext with – obviously if you don’t know the person in real life there’s no guarantee that they are who they say they are. There is also a big risk around the ages of the girls you contact. Of course you can ask, but there’s no proof that they’re telling the truth.
I’ve never pressured anyone into sexting, and when any girl I’ve been seeing hasn’t been interested I’ve been fine with that. There are some people though who will put pressure on you. I would say that if someone is pressuring you to do or send something you’re not comfortable with, the best thing to do is to cut contact with them. If you’re still worried then let an adult you trust know what’s been happening. Don’t keep it to yourself – there’s always someone who can help.
Once someone I was sexting said if I didn’t send more pictures they would post those I’d already sent on Facebook. I deleted them as a contact and fortunately didn’t hear any more about it after that. It was definitely a close call.
James, aged 17, talks about his experience of sexting girls. He hopes that his story will make others think before sending a sexual photo to someone.
Sexting is really pretty normal at my age. My friends and I talk very openly about our experiences within our relationships and the sort of things we’ve sent each other. It seems like everyone’s doing it.
You do sometimes get a negative reaction to something you send, like people saying they’ve ‘seen bigger’. It’s embarrassing.
I’ve seen images that have been sent to other people, or even sexual pictures of their ex partners, but I’ve never shared any myself – I don’t think it’s right.
My first experience of sexting was with a girlfriend when I was 16. She suggested it as a way to keep in touch when we were apart for a few weeks.
We started by sending sexual texts by Blackberry Messenger, then it progressed to pictures, voice notes and short videos. There are definitely risks involved. Someone saw a video message I had sent to a previous girlfriend took a screen shot and posted it online. They called me a pervert and lots of people I knew saw it – it was clearly me pictured. I was completely devastated and, to be honest, almost suicidal. I got the picture taken down eventually, but by that stage people had ‘unfriended’ me and the damage was done.
I do worry about who is behind the phones of the people I sext with – obviously if you don’t know the person in real life there’s no guarantee that they are who they say they are. There is also a big risk around the ages of the girls you contact. Of course you can ask, but there’s no proof that they’re telling the truth.
I’ve never pressured anyone into sexting, and when any girl I’ve been seeing hasn’t been interested I’ve been fine with that. There are some people though who will put pressure on you. I would say that if someone is pressuring you to do or send something you’re not comfortable with, the best thing to do is to cut contact with them. If you’re still worried then let an adult you trust know what’s been happening. Don’t keep it to yourself – there’s always someone who can help.
Once someone I was sexting said if I didn’t send more pictures they would post those I’d already sent on Facebook. I deleted them as a contact and fortunately didn’t hear any more about it after that. It was definitely a close call.
Austria
A few years ago a friend of mine made a very dumb mistake. But let me tell you the whole story from the beginning:
My friend was fifteen years old at that time and totally in love with a boy. What she didn’t know was that this boy wasn’t a good guy. One day he forced her to send him pictures of her naked body. First, she said no, but then he could persuade her to send him pictures on snapchat where they would expire after a few seconds. She agreed, trusted him, loved him. However, he took advantage of her naivety and took a screenshot of her snaps.
It didn’t take long and everybody knew. My friend was ashamed and disappointed. She didn’t want to go to school and quickly fell into a deep depression because everybody bullied her.
All she needed during those days were good friends who stood by her side – especially in bad times. Fortunately, she had these friends. We encouraged her to go to a psychologist. She went to the headmaster of our school who set all wheels in motion to delete the inappropriate pictures. The most important thing of all is that she completely ended the contact to her “boyfriend” and now she is happy again.
When using social media, it is important to keep in mind that it can quickly turn into a misused tool for bullying or under aged sexting. Please be aware of the possible dangers these apps might bring to your life and use them cautiously.
My friend was fifteen years old at that time and totally in love with a boy. What she didn’t know was that this boy wasn’t a good guy. One day he forced her to send him pictures of her naked body. First, she said no, but then he could persuade her to send him pictures on snapchat where they would expire after a few seconds. She agreed, trusted him, loved him. However, he took advantage of her naivety and took a screenshot of her snaps.
It didn’t take long and everybody knew. My friend was ashamed and disappointed. She didn’t want to go to school and quickly fell into a deep depression because everybody bullied her.
All she needed during those days were good friends who stood by her side – especially in bad times. Fortunately, she had these friends. We encouraged her to go to a psychologist. She went to the headmaster of our school who set all wheels in motion to delete the inappropriate pictures. The most important thing of all is that she completely ended the contact to her “boyfriend” and now she is happy again.
When using social media, it is important to keep in mind that it can quickly turn into a misused tool for bullying or under aged sexting. Please be aware of the possible dangers these apps might bring to your life and use them cautiously.
Poland
Hi my name is Marie,
I had been dating with Mateusz for two years. We were very happy and loved each other.
One day he asked me to send some nude pics of mine. I didn‘t agree. He started to press me to do that. Unfortunately after a few days I gave in. The nightmare started at school soon after that.
I felt strange going to school since everyone was looking at me with ironic smiles. I had no clue what it was all about. In the evening my friend Grazyna called me and informed me that Mateusz had shown my pics to all his friends. I didn’t know what to do so I talked to my dad and he called the police. The police confiscated all of Mateusz’s devices, found copies and deleted them. He was sentenced to reformatory. After that I changed school but I still remember that horrible experience.
I had been dating with Mateusz for two years. We were very happy and loved each other.
One day he asked me to send some nude pics of mine. I didn‘t agree. He started to press me to do that. Unfortunately after a few days I gave in. The nightmare started at school soon after that.
I felt strange going to school since everyone was looking at me with ironic smiles. I had no clue what it was all about. In the evening my friend Grazyna called me and informed me that Mateusz had shown my pics to all his friends. I didn’t know what to do so I talked to my dad and he called the police. The police confiscated all of Mateusz’s devices, found copies and deleted them. He was sentenced to reformatory. After that I changed school but I still remember that horrible experience.