Teen sexting concerns overblown, studies find
December 5, 2011
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Star staff
Parents contemplating getting cellphones for their teens this Christmas may not have as much to worry about as they thought.
Two studies from the University of New Hampshire Crimes against Children Research Center suggest that sexting isn’t nearly as wide spread as previously believed.
Published in the journal Pediatrics Monday, the first study found that the percentage of youth who send nude pictures of themselves that would actually qualify as child pornography is extremely low.
The researchers surveyed 1,560 children age 10 to 17 about their experiences appearing in, creating or receiving sexual videos and photos through the cellphones or the Internet. Just 2.5 per cent of survey respondents said they had sexted in the previous year. Only 1 per cent of those exchanges included imagines that could violate pornography laws by showing “naked breasts, genitals or bottoms,” it found.
“Lots of people may be hearing about these cases discovered by schools and parents because they create a furor, but it still involves a very small minority of youth,” said lead author Kimberly Mitchell, research assistant professor of psychology at the UNH.
The second of the two studies found that when teen sexting images come to police attention, few youth are arrested and treated like sex offenders.
“Most law enforcement officials are handling these sexting cases in a thoughtful way and not treating teens like sex offenders and child pornographers,” said Janis Wolak, senior researcher at the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center and lead author of the second study.
Together the researchers found that sexual images that are traded between youth rarely get passed around the Internet the way parents may fear.