At least one in four teens are receiving sexually explicit texts and emails, and at least one in seven are sending sexts, a new study suggests.
Sexting can be a healthy way for young people to explore sexuality and intimacy when it’s consensual, said lead study author Sheri Madigan of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the University of Calgary in Canada.
The trouble is that when it’s coerced, or when sexts are shared without permission, it can feel a lot like cyberbullying, with many of the same dangerous mental health consequences.
More than one in 10 teens are forwarding these sexts without consent, the study found.
And roughly one in 12 teens have had sexts they sent shared without their permission.
“Today’s teens often do not separate their online and offline lives - it is all the same to them,” Madigan said by email. “This is hard for parents to grasp.”
Most teens don’t report sexting at all, and those who do send or receive sexually explicit messages, videos or images tend to be older, researchers report in JAMA Pediatrics.
Researchers examined data on sexting habits from 39 previously published studies with a total of 110,380 teens. Participants were 15 years old on average, although they ranged in age from about 12 to 17.
Because kids today typically have a smartphone by the time they’re 10 years old, parents should address sexting as part of any early conversations they have with kids about practicing safe sex and protecting their privacy online, Madigan advised.
“It can be helpful for parents to think about sexting in the same way they think about sex,” said Elizabeth Englander, author of an accompanying editorial and director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University.