Girl of 13 is shamed by her mum into wearing this board in public after being caught sexting
Social media slams 'cruel' mother after the teen was spotted 'bawling her eyes out' on a busy road
SOCIAL media users have slammed a mother after a teenage girl was apparently forced to hold up a humiliating sign for being caught sexting.
A shocked witness says she was “jolted” when she spotted a crying girl on the side of a busy main road, holding a sign which read: “I'm 13 I ask for d*** pics."
Krista Wilson, who posted the picture, says the girl was there for several hours on the road in California.
Krista drove on but was so moved she returned to check on the girl.
She told NBC news: "You could see tears running down her face. Public shaming should not be done."”
She added: “"Grown men were reading it and laughing.”
Krista, 22, said that a woman was parked in a nearby SUV who she assumed was the mother, but she didn’t approach her.
Another witness said she saw the crying teen pleading with the woman in the car.
Kaceylynn Zambrano, 25, said: "I saw her bawling her eyes out, just saying she didn't want to do this," said
Social media users were horrified by the girl’s “public shaming”.
One called it: “Exploitation and abuse.”
One wrote: “This is so horrific! That poor little girl; she is 13! This is NOT the way to teach a child appropriate behaviour. She is a product of a hyper-sexual culture and doesn't deserve public humiliation like this. I'd be surprised if this doesn't contribute to actual trauma.”
Another added: “It certainly was a teachable moment, instead her so called parents have shamed her. 13 is such an impressionable age for self-esteem and the like. Way to go crappy parents????”
But not everybody agreed.
Lt. Melissa Bartholomew said an officer spoke with the girl's mother and concluded the this did not constitute child abuse.
She also said it was her understanding that a social worker was contacting the mother with help on parenting strategies.
Psychology expert Elizabeth Davis, PhD, said that shaming children can be harmful.
She said: "The line between who they are and what they did is really blurred for teens” adding that shaming is "heaping self-doubt on something already volatile."
Instead, she said, parents should talk to their teenagers and try to determine the causes of the inappropriate behaviour.
A concerned dad recently found himself on the sex offenders register after keeping nude pictures his 15-year-old stepdaughter sent to her boyfriend on his phone so he could report them to the police.