‘Sexting’ is an amalgamation of sex and texting – it is the practice of using different forms of technology to send or receive sexually explicit messages, photos or videos. It many practices it may even have legal implications. It has been revealed that as many as 25 to 50 percent of young people may participate in sexting.
An article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking presented a close-up look at the sexting practices of a group of urban ethnic minority youths. As it turns out sexting is actually very popular among urban minority youth.
The authors of the study calculated the prevalence of sexting by analysing data collected from more than 1,000 tenth graders from a large urban school district. They reported that 20 percent of the students reported sending a nude or sexually explicit picture or video or a sexual text message – these were all considered to be a ‘sext’. Also, more than 30 percent reported receiving a sext.
Interestingly, the results also showed that sexts were often shared with people who were not supposed to see them. One third of the youths reported seeing, sharing or receiving sexts that were supposed to be private.
Social networks and increased access to mobile phones for young people has seen new trends evolve very quickly and sometimes it can be difficult to understand exactly what is going on. While not all of the young people interviewed had been involved in sexting, the percent will still sufficiently high enough to show that it is a major aspect of the lives of many young people.
This kind of information is useful as it allows us to make more informed decisions about what is best for you young people and what their lives are really like.
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