Teens who share nude or nearly nude photos of themselves-called "sexting"-appear to be more likely to be sexually active and to engage in risky sexual behavior. However, only about 7% of teens say that they have sexted photos of themselves.
These findings are from a study published on line in the Journal of Adolescent Health and cited by Health Behavior News Service. Researchers conducted an on-line surgery of more than 3,700 young Americans aged 13 to 18. The teenagers were asked if they had shared sexual photos of themselves where they were nude or nearly nude during the previous year. They were also asked if they used a cell phone or the internet to share the photos or if they shared the photos in person. In addition, they were asked about their sexual activity.
Teens who said they sexted were more likely to say they had a larger number of sexual partners in the year before they were surveyed and to have engaged in other risky sexual business. The teens who sexted also said they were more likely to use alcohol or marijuana.
Girls were more likely to say they had sexted and older teens were more likely to say they did so than younger teens. About 70% of those who sexted say they shared photos with someone they knew off-line and half said they shared the photos with someone the same age as themselves. However, 4 in 10 teens said they shared the photos with someone who was older.
One limitation of the study is that the definitions of what was nude or nearly nude was broad. A photo of someone in a bathing suit might be considered nearly nude. This may mean that even fewer teens are actually sharing sexual photos of themselves than this study reports.
