On Valentine's Day MTV will air “Sexting in America: When Privates Go Public” as part of “A Thin Line,” MTV’s multi-year initiative to stop the spread of digital abuse. The show explores the recent emergence of ‘sexting’ in pop culture and looks at which celebrities have been caught hitting “send.” Sexting is a trend that has become extremely popular amongst teens. A survey done by MTV and the Associated Press says that one-third of teens are sexting and that 61 percent were pressured by someone to send the image. The study also showed that girls were more likely to share a naked image of themselves than boys.

MTV’s Valentines Day special will highlight twenty-year old Ally Pereira who at the age of 16 was pressured by her ex-boyfriend into sending a picture of herself. Shortly after, her topless picture spread across the student body of her school. We spoke to Pereira about her experience. “I was ashamed of myself for stooping down to that level” Pereira said, “having done something like that and I was scared that it would get out.”

Which is exactly what happened. She knew her picture was out when people at school began harassing her. “People would call me things in the hallway, they would say, whore, slut, and my ex-boyfriend would point and laugh at me with his phone in the hallways.” Pereira had to experience harassment from her classmates throughout her high school years making her school experience horrible. But she managed to stay strong and fight through all the harassment. Not all teens can maintain strong through these situations.

We also spoke to Jason Rzepka, vice president of public affairs for MTV and head of “A Thin Line” who says "those who send a nude photo are four times more likely to contemplate suicide.” Rzepka also points out that MTV’s study showed that teens are not aware that their lack of digital ethics have legal consequences.

The study asked teens this question: “Thinking about the consequences about your digital behavior have you consider that it could translate to trouble at school or with your parents or with the law?" The results showed that three quarters of teens  thought that their digital behavior would have no consequences. Teens fail to realize that by distributing nude pictures—especially of underage kids—they could be charged with child pornography and listed as sex offenders. Rzepka says this is an issue that hasn’t gotten all the attention it deserves. He says people think it's old behavior playing out on a new platform.

It hasn't been that long since cell phones had no camera built in, Facebook was only for college students and YouTube was barely getting play, and kids didn’t care about going viral. Now, those sites are getting competitive. It’s all about going viral and getting the most play, making teen’s digital ethics change.

To help spread the word “A Thin Line” is promoting their “Redraw the Line Challenge”: a contest in search for innovative digital solutions that help young people identify, prevent and stop the spread of digital abuse. The contest is open to 16 to 29 year-olds with submissions due by February 19th. The grand prize is $10,000 and a chance to work with MTV to develop the winning idea with a budget of $75,000.