The Research on Sexting

Jonah's getting a cellphone for Christmas. Shhh. Don't tell him. We've been very nervous about this purchase, because some neighbor kids had been involved in sexting last year. Like I need that in my life. In the end, we decided that the convenience of coordinating pick-up times after school out weighed the potential risks.

The Pew Foundation released their research findings on sexting and teenagers.

In a nationally representative survey of those ages 12-17 conducted on landline and cell phones, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found:

• 4% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of themselves to someone else via text messaging
• 15% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have received sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of someone they know via text messaging on their cell phone.
• Older teens are much more likely to send and receive these images; 8% of 17-year-olds with cell phones have sent a sexually provocative image by text and 30% have received a nude or nearly nude image on their phone.
• The teens who pay their own phone bills are more likely to send "sexts": 17% of teens who pay for all of the costs associated with their cell phones send sexually suggestive images via text; just 3% of teens who do not pay for, or only pay for a portion of the cost of the cell phone send these images.
• Our focus groups revealed that there are three main scenarios for sexting: 1) exchange of images solely between two romantic partners; 2) exchanges between partners that are shared with others outside the relationship and 3) exchanges between people who are not yet in a relationship, but where at least one person hopes to be.

Comments

[bj]

I refuse to worry about this now!

[lmc]

It sounds like being able to monitor the bill inhibits some of the behavior (or at least that there is a correlation). It'd be nice if the power of the embarrassment factor of your parents finding out could put some breaks on things.

[Ragtime]

Maybe this outs me as an incredible naive luddite, but I do have a cell phone that is no more than a few years old. It does not have a camera attached to it. This (if nothing else) prevents me from taking any impulse pictures of my naughty bits and sending them to you, and receiving your naughty pictures that you impulsively want to send to me.

Can't we have the best of both worlds by buying the kids phones that are not any higher tech than mine?

[bj]

"Can't we have the best of both worlds by buying the kids phones that are not any higher tech than mine?"

But then, they couldn't use their cameras to make art. http://www.flickr.com/groups/iphonephotoart/pool/

I prefer imposing regulation, rather than taking away the use. Right now, for my 8 year old, that means I can peak in on her computer whenever I want (using Apple Remote Access). Perhaps by the time I get her a phone, there will be an option that will post all her photos to my photo site, for viewing. Of course, I expect she'll be able to disable things as she chooses, but I will try to make it hard for her.

(and, darn you Laura, but you've made me worry about it)

[bj]

PS: Once you get an iPhone, you'll forget how life was possible without one.

And, Laura, your old gift post induced me to upgrade my 1st gen phone. Then I turned my 1st gen phone into a iTouch, which I let the kids play with.

[Jody]

There used to be huge regional variations between when people acquired these sorts of technologies -- is that still true? I ask because we have third-graders, and I feel pretty confident in my belief that none of them expect cell phones before middle school.

My pretty early-adopting Mpls suburban relatives imposed a 12-year old rule on cell phones for their world-traveling kids.

If I'd had a camera cell phone in the early years of my relationship with Spouse (we were 19 when we started dating), I would TOTALLY have sent him naked photos. I mean, isn't that something of a no-brainer?

[MH]

I mean, isn't that something of a no-brainer?

I don't know. How many women have sent naked pictures of themselves to your husband?

[Western Dave]

My wife has many sexually suggestive self-portraits but they were part of her mfa thesis and the general public saw them well before I ever did. Some of less racy ones hang in our house and the kids don't really notice. And the naughty bits are all mannequin parts. Donna Harraway was really big then. When we were still childless, the guy who installed our cable must have been an art fan because he saw one of them and said to my wife "is that you?" and she said "yes" and somehow we had free HBO and Showtime for the whole time we lived in that apartment.