Sexting and young people: surveillance and childhood sexuality

This 2010 statement by the Hon. Luke Simpkins, a Federal MP from the seat of Cowan in Western Australia, marked the first mention of sexting by young people in the Australian Federal Parliament. Simpkins, while noting that sexting is not necessarily child pornography, bemoans it as ‘unhealthy behaviour’. He considers that it is not right for young people to engage in it and opines that in order to save young people from embarrassment in later life, sexting must be ‘discouraged’ through ‘some penalties’. Sexting, clearly, in his view, is an expression of childhood sexuality that requires some form of suppression and/or regulation.