Fowler gives ‘Exposure’ to dangers of sexting

Novelists are always urged to write about what they know.

Author Therese Fowler has followed that advice with her third novel, Exposure (Ballantine, $25), in stores Tuesday. The plot centers on the red-hot issue of teens sexting, and Fowler’s knowledge is hard-earned.

In 2009, Fowler’s then-19-year-old son was arrested on a misdemeanor charge for e-mailing nude photos of himself to a 16-year-old female friend.

“I was astonished that simply sharing a photo of himself with a girl he knew could be considered criminal,” says Fowler, 44, from her home in Wake Forest, N.C. (The charges were dismissed.)

Fowler used the experience to write a Romeo-and-Juliet drama set at a posh private school in North Carolina.

In this case, Juliet is 17-year-old Amelia, the sheltered only child of a wealthy, self-made auto dealer. Romeo is Anthony, the 18-year-old son of a bohemian single mom from New York. He attends the school because his mother teaches there.

The young lovers find themselves at the center of a national scandal after Amelia’s father discovers naked photos of Anthony on his daughter’s laptop. The police are called, an aggressive prosecutor gets involved, and the news media go ballistic.

Fowler tells each chapter from a different character’s point of view. The mother of four sons, she knows “girls are so much more at risk” of having their nude photos going viral.

Sexting can also be illegal. Exposure‘s plot hinges on Amelia being 17, which opens Anthony up to child pornography charges.

J. Tom Morgan, a former district attorney in Georgia, cites surveys estimating that one of every four teens are sexting.

“Parents are shocked that their kids have this stuff on their cellphones,” he says. “Kids see that adults, specifically celebrities, are doing this, and then it’s OK for them.”

Morgan, the author of Ignorance Is No Defense, which looks at laws affecting students under 21, points to sexting’s dangers:

• If a participant is under 18, sexting photos is legally considered child pornography.

• The images never disappear, often ending up on porn websites.

• Online sexual predators pretend to be flirtatious peers, luring girls and boys alike into sexting.

Fowler’s son supports his mother’s decision to write about their family turmoil, but he has not read Exposure. “He doesn’t read fiction,” she says.

The experience embarrassed her son, Fowler says. It made her determined to “help other parents … and to make teens think twice” before they click and send.