Ten years ago s-xting wasn’t even a word. Now it is such a difficult issue that at least one of our state parliaments is agonising over what to do about it.

S-xting is the practice of taking explicit images and sending them electronically, with or without consent. You’d think the ethics of explicit texting would be simple; the risk of exploitation and victimisation is so great that the practice should simply be deplored. But a look at some of the 60 submissions to the Victorian Law Reform Committee’s inquiry reveals this phenomena is anything but simple.

The committee has been tasked to investigate the practice, as well as the implications.