It's perfectly normal for teens and preteens to be sexually curious. Sex is fascinating, after all-whether you're thirteen or forty, whether you're years away from engaging in it or deeply involved in enjoying it. A friend told me she remembers when she was about twelve, sneaking into her father's medical library with her girlfriends and pouring over his anatomy texts. "The books were filled with pictures of penises and vaginas, and we thought we were being so daring!" she said, adding, "It's kind of quaint when you consider what kids are into today!"
Yes, indeed. If our kids' sexually curious behavior was confined to rifling through textbook photos of male and female genitalia, we probably wouldn't have much to worry about. But we live in an online era-and sometimes being naturally curious can get young people into a lot of trouble.
According to a recent Los Angeles Times article by David Kelly, four teenage boys in southern California posted nude and semi-nude photos of a group of fourteen- and fifteen-year-old girls on a social networking site. The boys are being sought for possession of harmful matter depicting a person under eighteen and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Sending nude or semi-nude photos via cell-phone or computer is referred to as "sexting," and according to statistics given in the article, one in five teenagers has done it. 
