The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy/CosmoGirl.com
About one in five teens say they have electronically sent, or posted online, nude or semi-nude images of themselves, and one-third of young adults ages 20 to 26 say they have sent or posted such images, according to the results of an online survey of 1,280 youth and young adults.
Additionally, 15 percent of teens say they have sent sexually suggestive content such as text messages, email, photographs or video to someone they know only online. However, such online exploits appear to be influencing real life, researchers found: 38 percent of teens said that exchanging sexy content makes dating or hooking up with others more likely and nearly one-third said they believed exchanging sexy content is “expected” when dating or hooking up.
“Parents should understand that their own notions of what’s public, what’s private, and what’s appropriate, may differ greatly from how teens and young adults define these concepts,” said Marisa Nightingale, senior advisor to the Entertainment Media Program at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, in a statement announcing the survey results. Free, 20 pages. (202) 478-8510, www.thenationalcampaign.org/sextech/PDF/SexTech_Summary.pdf
