More On Sexting And Mental Health
In a recent article, it has been quoted that police are investigating 17 child sexting complaints per day. This represents a doubling in such cases in a mere two years. Sex is a good thing and certainly when consenting adults engage in this, pretty much anything goes (within the bounds of the law of course). However, sexualisation is occurring at a much younger age than for the last generation. The reality is that adolescents have sexual feelings, and in generations past they had little outlet for them. With the advances in tech, now adolescents feel far more free to explore their sexuality. This exploration, can however, lead to difficulties both social and psychological.
Sex should be contextualised and unfortunately, adults, be they parents or teachers are not really doing enough to contextualise sex so that adolescents can explore in a relatively safe space for them to develop good sexual health. For an adult psychotherapist, such as myself, this lack of contextualisation manifests itself in more and more sexual issues, be they dysfunctions or the inability to form and retain lasting relationships in their mid 20’s to early 30’s.
We as a society have taken the breaks off sex, and in many respects for good reasons. We must however, do better in helming adolescents find their own sexual way, without the risks of exploitation of any kind.
