Mike Domitrz explains why teens send nude photos: mostly for attention and to feel better about their bodies, not because of romance or pressure. He urges parents and educators to treat it as a body-image problem, not just a sexual one.
This example I'm about to give you, I always find fascinating because it creeps parents out and it's really powerful and it creeps us out. So I want to be very transparent about that before we do it. If you ask a kid, why did you send a nude? Why did you choose to send it? If you weren't being blackmailed, you weren't being pressured, why'd you send it? Almost always it was for attention or to feel better about their body. Almost always, because almost never Are these photos being sent between people in loving relationships? Isn't that wild? In high school, when you say, where are the nudes flying back and forth? It's not between people dating. So this isn't about people who have already seen each other naked sharing images of themselves. Not even about that in high school. And you go, so why are you doing it? And well, I want someone to love my body. That's gonna make me feel better. That's interesting.
