That's Not Cool campaign targets sexting

Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund, is launching a new initiative and contest as part of its award winning That’s Not Cool campaign that has teens answering this question: Pressuring someone for nude pics, cool or not cool?

From now until Aug. 30, teens will have a chance at winning one of 100 That’s Not Cool T-shirts for creating and posting a talking avatar that addresses how they feel about pressuring someone for nude pics.

A talking avatar for teens

That’s Not Cool launched a new speaking avatar application that allows teens to “Have Their Say” when it comes to relationship abuse.  After watching an animated video addressing digital dating abuse, teens create a personalized character and voice to respond to the “Pressuring Someone for Nude Pics, Cool or Not Cool?” question posed in the video.  That’s Not Cool uses text-to-speech technology so the teen-created character speaks the answer to the question in the voice style each teen selects.  Each unique video and contest entry can be posted and shared on www.thatsnotcool.com.

This new talking avatar is a personal and fun way for teens to engage and talk about digital dating abuse, what is and isn’t cool in their relationships and get a dialogue going about an issue that many young people will face.

That’s Not Cool was developed by Futures Without Violence in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and the Advertising Council. It is an award winning national public education initiative that educates youth about healthy relationships, encourages them to draw their own digital line and helps young people recognize, avoid, and prevent dating violence in their lives.

Since That’s Not Cool launched in 2009, the website has been viewed more than 1,000,000 times – 83 percent of those are new visitors to the site – and the That’s Not Cool campaign has more than 55,000 “likes” on Facebook.

About our First Person series:

First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education. Read our submission guidelines here.