The act of sending suggestive messages or photos through mobile phones and services is now a commonplace activity among teenagers. Researchers have done a study that finds no link between a teenager's sexting patterns and that individual's risky behavior. The New York Times explains:
New research suggests that in teenagers, sexting isn’t necessarily an indicator of risky sexual behavior, like having multiple partners, using drugs or alcohol before a sexual encounter, or failing to use protection against an unwanted pregnancy. Instead, researchers conducting a longitudinal study of an ethnically diverse group of adolescent students from Southeast Texas suggest that sexting (which they define narrowly as sending a nude image of oneself by text) is both a common and a normal part of adolescent sexual development.
“‘I’ll show you mine, you show me yours’ has been around for a long time,” said Dr. Jeff Temple, an associate professor and psychologist at the the University of Texas Medical Branch and one of the authors of the study, which will be published in the journal Pediatrics. “It’s the medium that makes it different and scary. The actual act of sharing pictures isn’t anything abnormal. It’s part of how we develop sexually.”
WebMD looks at how the study examines whether or not sexting precedes actual sex:
"What hasn't been clear is the chicken-and-egg question," said lead researcher Jeff Temple, an associate professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
His team found that among 964 Texas high school students -- most of them 10th graders -- almost 28 percent said they'd ever sent a nude image of themselves by text or email. And compared with other kids, those sexting teens were one-third more likely to be sexually active a year later.
So does that mean parents should take their kids' phones away?
No, Temple said. "Sexting is just one of many factors that are related to teenagers' sexual activity," he pointed out. "Just taking away the phone isn't going to do anything to stop kids from having sex."
