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July 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) — A new survey of hundreds of
high school students in the Houston area finds that 28 percent have
“sexted” — sent a naked photo of themselves through email or cell-phone
texting. And more than half said they’d been asked to send someone else a
naked photo.
Boys were more likely than girls to ask for naked photos, and girls
were more likely to be asked to send a photo, the survey found.
Touted as the most advanced research on sexting in the United States,
the survey does have limitations: The group of students surveyed had a
higher rate of ethnic minorities than in American public schools overall,
and only those whose parents agreed were allowed to answer the
questions.
Still, the findings suggest that sexting, the practice of sending
explicit material or information via texting, “is a fairly prevalent
behavior among teens,” said study lead author Jeff R. Temple, a
psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical
Branch at Galveston. “And teens who engage in sexting behaviors may be
more likely to have had sex. In other words, sexting may be a fairly
reliable indicator of sexual behaviors.”
The survey results, published online July 2 in the journal Archives
of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine, are based on responses from
948 students in 10th or 11th grade at seven Houston-area high schools. All
were between the ages of 14 and 19; 32 percent were Hispanic, 30 percent
were white and 27 percent were black. (By comparison, white students
accounted for 54 percent of U.S. public school students in 2010, according
to the National Center for Education Statistics.)
Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed said they’d sent a naked photo
of themselves, while 31 percent said they’d asked someone for a naked
photo. The numbers may sound surprising, but Temple said he was hardly
shocked.
“Based on several informal conversations with counselors, teachers,
parents, and students, I was actually surprised it wasn’t a bit higher,”
he said.
White and black students and those whose parents had less education
were the most likely to have sent naked photos or asked for them, the
survey showed.
Could any of the students be lying or misremembering? That’s possible,
Temple said, but added, “It is just as, or more, likely that adolescents
would try to downplay their sexting behavior to appear more socially
desirable.”
Other research has found “sexting” to be less common, with one study
released last month revealing that 20 percent of 606 students surveyed at
a Midwestern high school said they’d sent naked photos of themselves.
Temple said the new study may be more accurate than previous research
because it’s based on a better representation of teens in the United
States.
Is sexting bad for kids?
“Other than the potential for harassment when the pictures are
disseminated or the potential for legal troubles, I don’t think we have an
answer,” Temple said. “While we found that sexting may be a reliable
indicator of sexual behavior, we cannot say if sexting preceded or
followed sexual behavior, and we definitely cannot say it caused a teen
couple to have sex.”
Diane Kholos Wysocki, a sociology professor at the University of
Nebraska at Kearney who studies sexuality, said sexting is very risky.
“Once they hit send, it is out of their control. They don’t know where it
is going to end up. We know teens have committed suicide over this, and it
can ruin their lives. When kids are doing things without understanding the
repercussions, it is worth worrying about,” she said.
So what can be done? Temple suggests that pediatricians enter into
discussions about sex with teens during office visits by mentioning
sexting.
And Kholos Wysocki recommends parental monitoring.
“Watch your children. They know more about technology than you do. You
must learn,” she said. “Computers should not be behind closed doors. You
must know their passwords, and parents have to watch Facebook accounts. If
they see too little in the way of clothing going up in pictures, take them
down.”
“Parents must sometimes protect children from themselves,” she
added.
More information
Visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine for more details about teen sexual health.
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