Sexting is more prevalent among adolescents than perceived

New York, Feb 27 : Owing to an increase in smartphone ownership among teegers, the prevalence of sexting among adolescents has increased in the past two decades, finds a study involving over a lakh participants. The study on the sharing of sexually explicit images, videos, or messages through electronic means among teegers involved 110,380 participants.

The findings, based on a meta-alysis of 39 studies from 1990 to 2016, established that an estimated one in seven teegers send sexts and one in four receives them.

Media portrayals of sexting have often implicated adolescent girls as the senders of ked photographs and adolescent boys as the requesters.

However, the study found no significant sex differences in the rate of sending or receiving sexts. Moreover, the prevalences of forwarding a sext without consent and having a sext forwarded without consent were 12.0 per cent and 8.4 per cent, respectively, said researchers including Sheri Madigan, Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary in Cada. The nonconsensual forwarding of sexts can lead to harassment by peers, cyberbullying, or blackmailing and in extreme cases lead to suicide. Thus the study, published in the jourl JAMA Pediatrics, stated that age-specific information on sexting and its potential consequences should regularly be provided as a component of sex education. Efforts and resources to crimilise sexts should be redirected to educatiol programs on digital citizenship and healthy relationships, the researchers said. (IANS)

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