“Sexting” is more common than you might think
WASHINGTON — Think your kid is not “sexting”? Think again.
Sexting — sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online — is fairly commonplace among young people, despite sometimes grim consequences for those who do it. More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found.
That includes Sammy, a 16-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area who asked that his last name not be used.
Sammy said he had shared naked pictures of himself with girlfriends. He also shared naked pictures of someone else that a friend had sent him.
What he didn’t realize at the time was that young people across the country have faced charges, in some cases felony charges, for sending nude pictures. Both Missouri and Illinois have laws against sexting.
“That’s why I probably wouldn’t do it again,” Sammy said.
Yet, “I just don’t see it as that big of a problem, personally.”
That was the view of nearly half of those surveyed who have been involved in sexting. The other half said it’s a serious problem — and did it anyway.
Knowing there might be consequences hasn’t stopped them.
“There’s definitely the invincibility factor that young people feel,” said Kathleen Bogle, a sociology professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia and author of the book “Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus
“That’s part of the reason why they have a high rate of car accidents and things like that, is they think, ‘Oh, well, that will never happen to me,’” Bogle said.
Beyond feeling invincible, young people also have a much different view of sexual photos that might be posted online, Bogle said. They don’t think about the idea that those photos might wind up in the hands of potential employers or college admissions officers, she said.
“Sometimes they think of it as a joke; they have a laugh about it,” Bogle said. “In some cases, it’s seen as flirtation. They’re thinking of it as something far less serious and aren’t thinking of it as consequences down the road.”
Sexting doesn’t stop with teenagers. Young adults are even more likely to have sexted; one-third of them said they had been involved in sexting, compared with about one-quarter of teenagers.
Those who sent nude pictures of themselves mostly said they went to a boyfriend, girlfriend or romantic interest. But 14 percent said they suspect the pictures were shared without permission, and they may be right: Seventeen percent of those who received naked pictures said they passed them along to someone else, often to more than just one person.
Girls were a little more likely to send pictures of themselves. Yet boys were more likely to say that sexting is “hot,” while most girls called it “slutty.”
Altogether, 10 percent said they had sent naked pictures of themselves on their cell phones or online.
Source:
LIBBY QUAID
AP
