Sexting is Still the Rage Among Teens
12/15/2009

I came across a new article today from CNN which reports "Nearly one-sixth of teens who own cell phones have received nude or nearly nude images via text message from someone they know." This is the phenomenon known as sexting. Here are a few items of interest from the article. First, "teens whose parents searched through their cell phones were no more or less likely to send and receive sexually explicit text messages than those whose phones were kept private," and also "boys and girls surveyed were equally likely to say they engage in sexting."

So it doesn't matter if your teen is male or female and it doesn't matter how tightly you, as a parent, regulate control over the device.

That's not encouraging.

Part of the solution, I believe, is communication. In fact, an 18 year old named Avery has this to say in the article:

Avery suggested parents talk to their teens about appropriate cell phone use when their kids first get cell phones. But don't overdo it, she said, because teens generally understand the dangers of sexting.

"Parents think it's happening more than it actually is," she said. "It's not seen as very normal by teenagers."

FULL ARTICLE:
CNN - Survey: 15 percent of teens get sexual text messages