By Valerie Milano
Palm Springs, CA (The Hollywood Times) 3/15/24 – In the era of pervasive technology and on the cusp of AI advancement, our youth possess boundless opportunities at their fingertips. Yet, coupled with inadequate supervision and parental oversight, this abundance can morph into a potential minefield of calamity. These very dilemmas are illustrated in the gripping narrative of Lifetime’s drama, Friday Night Sext Scandal, starring Keana Lyn Bastidas, Anthony Timpano, Tara Nicodemo, and Devyn Nekoda. Imagine: discovering that a trusted friend exploits the vulnerability you both share; what remains of this friendship? As a parent, how would you respond if your child were implicated in cyber harassment? Sext Scandal deftly navigates these intricate themes while issuing a nationwide cautionary tale: the risks simply outweigh the ‘rewards’.
The foundation of the film is clear; two families that were raised extremely close together threaten to have the fabric of their lives changed by one peer pressure induced decision. Although a work of fiction, the story exposes a huge epidemic in youth culture. While social media applications boast myriad societal benefits, from facilitating networking to enhancing everyday routines, they also harbor a darker underbelly. Sexting and the exchange of explicit content among minors rank prominently among these perils. This troubling trend, involving the electronic transmission of sexually explicit messages, photos, or videos, has surged among teenagers. According to a 2019 study published in JAMA Pediatrics, approximately 15% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 admitted to sending explicit self-images, while 27% acknowledged receiving such content. Executive producer of Friday Night Sext Scandal, Danielle Von Zerneck offers, “Boys secretly sharing naked photos of their fellow female friends and students is shockingly common and yet not often acknowledged or discussed. It was necessary to explore this topic from the male perspective. If we characterize every one of the boys who participate in this kind of action as evil monsters, that oversimplification and ‘othering’ doesn’t lead us to answers or solutions. It is only when we find compassion and deeper understanding from all sides do we figure out how to end the circle of violence.”
Teens engaging in the exchange of illicit imagery risk severe consequences, as depicted in the film. From potential charges akin to child pornography to enduring the lifelong stigma of a sex offender registry, the fallout is staggering. Danielle adds, “We thought it was important for people to understand there aren’t very satisfying, concrete consequences for the perpetrators. The problem is so much bigger than evil, mean boys sharing nudes without consent. It touches on when and how sex and porn are introduced to young brains and how that information is processed, how parents with the best intentions can find themselves completely clueless as to what their child’s experience of their burgeoning sexuality in the social media/porn hub/onlyfans era is.”
Sext Scandal aims not only to spotlight the need for heightened vigilance over our youth, but also to extend support to victims, perpetrators, and parents of sexting-related incidents involving their children. In the film, we see Lucinda’s character deal greatly with figuring out her next steps when her son is responsible for taking and sharing nudes. Zerneck states, “It is our experience that parents do take on blame for their child’s actions – good and bad. Parents believe it is their duty to establish their children’s moral compasses, imbuing them with the ethical tenets they believe are important for their kids to absorb about being a good citizen in their community. When a child acts outside those structures in ways that actively fly in the face of what a parent holds as meaningful, they can’t but help contemplate it is a failure on their part.
The intention of the movie is not to persuade the viewer of what is right or wrong in any of the situations. It is more to explore how far a parent might go to protect their son from consequences that some might say are not commensurate to the crime. Is there a better way to ensure her son never engages in this behavior again than putting him behind bars and labeling him a pedophile? Lucinda is in an emotional moment is wrestling with how to both protect her son from destroying his life and find a way to rectify the situation. There are not a lot of options and support for parents in this situation and by the end of the movie she is looking to change that.”
Be sure to watch the incredible film Friday Night Sext Scandal, only on Lifetime.
