Sexting is on the rise among teens: ~27% get nudes, other racy messages

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Tweens and teens are sending and receiving racy messages at increasing rates, a new meta-analysis in JAMA Pediatrics suggests.

Rehashing data from 39 high-quality studies, researchers estimate that around 27 percent of youths aged between 12 and 17 receive sext messages on their phones and-to a lesser extent-on their computers. About 15 percent reported sending sensitive videos, pics, and texts. The gap between senders and receivers could mean that some teens may not be fessing up to the spicy trend; some senders may dispatch their risqui(C) communiqui(C)s to multiple people; or some receivers just don't reciprocate. Perhaps the worst-case scenario is that receivers forward sext messages without consent. About 12 percent-one in eight youths-admitted to doing this, though only five studies touched on this scenario.

Sexting has "a unique ability to catalyze adult anxiety when children and adolescents engage in it," psychologists Elizabeth Englander and Meghan McCoy from Bridgewater State University wrote in an accompanying editorial. "Yet there is not a great deal of research examining sexting, its prevalence, its causes, and its repercussions," they note.

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