The Dangers of Texting and Sexting

Gr 4—7—In this brief live-action video, a cheerful preteen host speaks to viewers through a frame in one corner of the screen as if she is using an online chat, making the format more of a "vlog" than a blog. She mentions several problems she and her classmates have had involving text messaging, including a distracted texting pedestrian nearly hit by a car, a student distracted from his homework by the buzzing phone, and a girl upset to discover that a locker room photo of her had been taken without her knowledge and was being sent from phone to phone. Each situation is illustrated with a vignette featuring a young multiethnic cast. While the topic is timely and the video and audio aspects are good, the dialogue in the vignettes tends to be stilted and the action verges on melodrama.—Beth Gallego, Panorama City Public Library, CA