Teen’s suicide over sexting

It’s a tragedy no parent can imagine, and this teenage suicide was over nude photos she sent to her “boyfriend” last spring. Her mother, Cynthia Logan, went public on national television today so that other teens won’t make the same mistake. The sexting incident involving her only child, then-18-year-old Jesse Logan. NBC reports that “she had sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When they broke up, he sent them to other high school girls. The girls were harassing her, calling her a slut and a whore. She was miserable and depressed, afraid even to go to school.” Her mother told Today “she never knew the full extent of her daughter’s anguish until it was too late. Cynthia Logan only learned there was a problem at all when she started getting daily letters from her daughter’s school reporting that the young woman was skipping school.” The tragedy illustrates the importance of getting and keeping young people talking with parents or other trusted adults about the online and on-phone part of their social lives too. A recent study at UCLA found that only 10% of youth report incidents of digital harassment and bullying (see “Online harassment: Not telling parents.”