By David Matthau - NJ 101.5 FM - September 7, 2010

With the new school year getting underway, a Jersey lawmaker is pushing a plan to stop middle and high school students from engaging in the practice known as "sexting" - where they take nude or sexually suggestive pictures of themselves and send them to their friends on their cell phones.

Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt says "kids do stupid things, and they utilize the internet and digital media in inappropriate ways - our job is to really focus on educating them about why it's wrong and providing the resources to them in an appropriate period of time."

She says "these types of things- of sexting and taking pictures of yourself and sending it to your friends - even though you might hit the delete button, it's really forever…many of these kids - they want to believe that their new boyfriend is not going to share this picture with anybody else- and lo and behold, it's flooded throughout the whole school."

Lampitt's legislation requires school districts to annually disseminate information to students in grades 6 through 12 and their parents or guardians on the dangers of distributing sexually explicit images through electronic means." Under the bill, the information must include a description of the practice and its legal, psychological, and sociological implications. The bill permits a school district to disseminate the information by any means it deems appropriate, including pamphlets, posters, and other educational materials, new or existing instructional programs or assemblies, and meetings with parents or guardians after regular school hours.

Lampitt adds "this is a very promiscuous age group - more promiscuous than we were at this age - when we were this age, we had Polaroids…instead of incarceration, instead of labeling you as a sex offender, and having a record, basically it's a forgiveness and education plan."

She plans to formally introduce the legislation when the Legislature reconvenes later this fall.