CHICAGO – Teen sexting of nude photos online or via cellphone may be far less common than people think, new research suggests.
Only 1 percent of kids aged 10 to 17 have shared images of themselves or others that involve explicit nudity, a nationally representative study found. Roughly the same number said they’d shared suggestive but less graphic photos, while 7 percent said they’d received either type of picture.
The research suggests texting of sexual photos among younger kids is extremely rare but more common among older teens.
The results are reassuring, showing that teen sexting isn’t rampant, usually isn’t malicious, and is generally not something parents should panic over, said lead author Kimberly Mitchell, a research assistant psychology professor at the University of New Hampshire.
Previous reports said as many as one in five young people – 20 percent – have participated in sexting. But some surveys included older teens and people in their early 20s. And some used definitions of sexting that included racy text messages without photos, or images “no more revealing than what someone might see at a beach,” authors of the new study said.
They focused only on pictures, and asked more detailed questions about the kinds of racy photos kids are sharing.
The researchers did a separate study on how police deal with teen sexting of photos. It estimates that nearly 4,000 teen sexting cases were reported to police nationwide in 2008 and 2009.
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