22% Teen Girls Shared Risqué Photos of Themselves Via Text/Online, Says New Survey

By Contributor Wireless and Mobile News on December 12, 2008 11:33 AM

Teenage girls and boys are sending, receiving, posting, and sharing naked or barely-clothed photos at an alarming rate. According to a survey released by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com, parents and teens have a lot to be concerned about.

Photo sharing technology, social networking services, and MMS make it easier than ever before for people of any age to send photos that can come back to haunt them.

The survey of 1,280 teens and young adults was conducted online by TRU, a global leader in research on teens and 20-somethings. The facts of the study show teens and young adults show very little restraint and click on send or share without thinking.

One in five teen girls (22%)--and 11% of teen girls ages 13-16 years old say they have electronically sent, or posted online, naked or semi-naked images of themselves.
One-third (33%) of teen boys and one-quarter (25%) of teen girls say they have had nude/seminude images--originally meant to be private--shared with them.
15% of teens who have sent sexuallysuggestive content such as text messages, email, photographs or video say they have done so with someone they only know online.
Almost one in five teen boys(18%) say they have sent or posted naked/semi-naked images of themselves.
One-third (33%) of young adults--36% of women and 31% of men ages 20-26--say they have sent or posted such images.

What teens and young adults are doing electronically seems to have an effect on what
they do in real life:

Nearly one-quarter of teens (22%) admit that technology makes them personally more forward and aggressive.
More than one-third of teens (38%) say exchanging sexy content makes dating or hooking up with others more likely and nearly one-third of teens
(29%) believe those exchanging sexy content are "expected" to date or hook up.

"Teenagers are early adopters of technology--from the latest social networking sites to the hottest new cell phones," says Susan Schulz, Special Projects Editor, Hearst Magazines. "While this tech savvy can be seen as a positive, our study reveals there's also a negative side. Teenagers should be aware of the real consequences to this type of behavior and we need to provide them with guidance and encourage them to make smart choices."

"That so many young people say technology is encouraging an even more casual, hook-up culture is reason for concern, given the high rates of teen and unplanned pregnancy in the United States,"said Marisa Nightingale, Senior Advisor to the Entertainment Media Program at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. "Parents should understand that their own notions of what's public, what's private, and what's appropriate, may differ greatly from howteens and young adults define these concepts."

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy website shows videos of teens and how this kinds of images came back to haunt them.