40 percent who'd sent explicit messages or photos said they'd been sexually active, study finds
Middle school students who send sexually explicit text messages and photos to one another are more likely to have sex than those who don't "sext," a new study finds.
A survey of young teens in Los Angeles found that 40 percent who'd sent explicit messages or photos said they'd been sexually active compared to just 5 percent of other kids with cellphones that could display text messages.
"The surprise is that for younger kids -- 11- to 13-year-olds -- sexting is not an alternative to real-life sexual activity. It's actually a part of it," said study author Eric Rice, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
"Also, kids who reported 100 or more text messages per day were much more likely to report sexting, so being an excessive texter may be an indication of risky behaviors," Rice added.
"Sexting" refers to sexually explicit messages sent via computer or cellphone -- in this case with or without images. Some sexts may just be explicitly flirtatious, while others include nudity.
Experts disagree about the level of risk posed by "sexting," and there's no definitive proof that the electronic messages are a gateway to early sexual activity.
"Sexting isn't harmful unto itself, but it can have harmful implications," Rice said. "It can ruin reputations and cause legal problems and may encourage kids to be more sexually active."
For the study, researchers surveyed more than 1,300 students aged 10 to 15 in the Los Angeles school district in 2012. Among those who answered questions about their ethnicity and sexuality, 60 percent were Latino and 96 percent were heterosexual.
'Sexting' Linked to Sex in Middle School
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