What is Sexting?

Sexting is a term coined by the media that generally refers to sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude photos or sexually suggestive messages through text message or email.



There is no clear cut definition of sexting, for the purpose of this discussion, we will define sexting into categories of involuntary and voluntary.

Voluntary -

Can be illegal because of child pornography laws (this is only relevant to photos), but the sender is voluntarily sending the photo/message of themselves.

Voluntary Examples:

- A few junior high school girls are at a slumber party and use their cell phones to take and send topless photos of themselves to each other.

- A high school boy emails a nude photo of himself to a high school girl he met on a social networking website, who asked him to send the photo.

Involuntary -

Automatically illegal even if the underage sender consents to sending the photo/message.  It cannot be considered voluntary if it breaks any law (state, local, or federal) except for child pornography laws.

Involuntary Examples:

- A 45 year old male meets a high school girl on the Internet and encourages her to send him nude photos of herself.  She takes nude photos of herself using a digital camera and emails them to the man.

- A high school boy sends a sexually explicit text message with no images attached, to a much younger child.

- A high school girl voluntarily sends a photo of herself to her boyfriend.  They break-up shortly after the photo is sent.  He then sends the photo to all of his friends and classmates.

*While she voluntarily sent the photo to her boyfriends, he didn't have her consent to send the photo around to other people.

- A high school boy received a photo on her cell phone depicting an adult having sexual intercourse with a toddler.

(His innocent receipt of such a photo should not result in him being charged with a crime; it is the sender that should be identified for potential prosecution.)

- A high school girl sends a photo of herself semi-nude to her teacher.

(While the girl sent the photo voluntarily, the receipt was unsolicited by the teacher.  It does break sexual harassment laws.)

  Teens & Sexting

Cox Communications recently conducted a study on Teen Online - Wireless Safety.  They presented their findings at the Teen Summit in Washington, D.C. on June 24, 2009.  Please see their findings below:

Sexting - Profile & Experience

About one in five teens have engaged in sexting and over a third know of a friend who has sent or received these kinds of messages.  Most sext senders say these messages are most commonly sent to boyfriends/girlfriends because it's asked of them or to have fun.

However, about 1 in 10 sext senders say they have sent these massages to people they don't even know.

Sexting - Attitudes

The majority of teens think sending sexts of someone under 18 is wrong, and even half of those who have engaged in it agree, while 80% of teen sexters are under 18.  Seven in ten think people their age are too Young to be sexting, but about half think they are old enough to decide for themselves if it is all right.

Sexting - Getting Caught

  Nearly all teens think it's dangerous to sext, including sexters themselves.  Only a small portion of sexters have been caught in the act.  About half of teens agree that adults overreact about sexting, and that when someone gets caught there are serious legal consequences.



Profile of a Sexter

Demographics:

- Evenly split boys'/girls (53% girls vs. 47% boys)
- Sext senders are likely to be girls (60% girls vs. 35% boys)
- More likely to be older (61% ages 16-18, 39% ages 13-15)

High Technology Use:

- Spend more time online per week (31.7 hours, compared to 26.8 hours for teens overall)
- Owns or uses a cell phone (81%), social networking profile (86%)
- In past months have checked out someone else's online profile (82%), updated own online profile (79%), posted or viewed photo's or videos (86%).
- On public blog or social networking site, has posted: photos of self (80%) or friends (70%).

     Online Safety

- A Sexter is more likely to think personal information online is unsafe (56% vs 59% for teens overall).

- A sexter  is no more concerned about information online having a negative effect on the future (73% vs 76% for teens overall).

Attitudes Towards Bullying

- Sexters are more likely to have been bullied (30% vs 19% for teens overall) and slightly more likely to have bullied someone (16% vs 10% for teens overall).

Sexting

- Sexters are more likely to think people their age are old enough to decide for themselves whether sexting is all right (76% vs 54% for teens overall).

- Sexters are more likely to think adults overreact when teens send sexually suggestive text messages and emails to each other (67% vs 48% for teens overall).



About 1 in 5 teens engage in some kind of sexting, either sending, receiving or forwarding sexually suggestive emails or text messages with a nude or nearly nude photo.




43% of those who have either sent or received sexts have done both and nearly all those who have sent sexts have received them.




Overwhelmingly, those who send and receive sexts say they are sent to a boyfriends/girlfriends.




The top reasons for sext senders to send these messages are because someone asked them to and to have fun.  Sext receivers, it is to have fun and to impress someone.




Nine in ten sext senders say nothing bad has happened because of a sext, but 3 out of 10 friends of sext senders say the photos were forwarded to someone.




Only 1 in 7 sexters have been caught having sent or received these messages, most commonly by a parent.





About three-quarters of teens think that sexting with photos of someone under 18 is wrong, with 48% also believing that it should be illegal.



About 8 in 10 sexters are under 18 years old.





Girls are more likely than boys to have sent a sext, but are less likely to think that people their age are old enough to decide whether it's all right to send them and less likely to think adults overreact about sexts.