back to article Lots of young adults still sexting shock

Another survey of US teenagers has shown an unprecedented proportion are sending nudie pictures of themselves to each other. The latest figures come from a poll organised by the Associated Press and MTV, which questioned around 1200 youths and semi-youths aged from 14 to 24. What they discovered, among other things, is that …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Really?

    "it's almost as though young people aren't listening to the advice provided by their elders and betters."

    Like that is a surprise??

  2. Jamie Kitson

    Perhaps...

    Maybe the ubiquity will mitigate the long-term risks, after all, if everyone's doing it, what's to be embarrassed about? If the novelty wears off maybe passing them around will become pase.

    > perhaps they should be admired for having such confidence in their own bodies.

    Love it, Gok Wan eat your heart out!

    > ten per cent of those questioned had sent pictures of themselves naked,

    > while 17 per cent had passed on such photographs without permission,

    Is that 17 percent of the total or 17 percent of the 10 percent? I suppose it is possible for more people to pass them around than to send them.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    all perfectly natural

    remind me why naked pics are bad again?

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Big Brother

    "long-term risks of naked photographs"

    Are they using radioactive emulsion or something?

    Big Brother because .... beware of accidentally child-porning yourself.

  5. Anonymous John
    FAIL

    Yeah right.

    Teenagers don't lie to pollsters about sex.

  6. Puck
    WTF?

    Now I know how Philip Larkin must have felt back in 1963.

    Also, is it just me or do young people dress much better now than in the 80s?

    I gather even in Roman times, boisterousness and disrespect emanating from the yoof, was frowned upon, in a sort of rose-tinted-blue-rinsed-nostalgia with which we're today familiar, and it does make one wonder if likewise Larkin's complaint also might be perennial symptom of middle-age, down the millenia? Or is it a particular annoyance arising from the post-industrial era?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Advice from elders and betters...

    as we all know telling a teenager not to do something is the fastest and most certain way of getting them to do exactly that!

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      forbidding the kids to do things

      Doesn't work when it's "don't tidy your room"

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sins of the authoritarians

    The only risks are from bullying authoritarians who seek to turn healthy curious teens into sexual deviants. In the old days, authoritarians were healthy curious teens who played doctor and nurses, who almost turned out OK, except that they want to punish the next generation for their sins.

  9. Graham Marsden
    FAIL

    "young people aren't listening to the advice..."

    ... and in a recent survey, 100% of teenagers replied "Whatever..."

  10. IR

    Cause/effect

    Slutty girls do/wear things that men think are hot. The things aren't slutty in themselves, sluts wear/do them because that is what men like! Ergo, doing slutty things doesn't necessarily make you a slut.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    muwahaha meaningful comment

    Teenagers? 24 is spelled without any teen in it, same for 23, etc.

    (I just had to say it)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      One key typo away

      twenty-four is just one key typo from getting "teen" in there.

      I'm just surprised the numbers are so low considering the age group their questioning. Hell, (way back when) at 24 I'd both given and received!

  12. Chris Hainey
    Stop

    Won't somebody...

    ... Think of the chil - oh, wait a minute...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    "...doing slutty things doesn't necessarily make you a slut."

    Fucking brilliant! Using this logic, killing someone (doing slutty things) doesn't make you a murderer (slut). Wanna try again, Einstein?

    1. Graham Marsden
      FAIL

      And...

      ... writing stupid posts making Ad Hominem attacks and ridiculous Straw Man arguments doesn't make you look like an idiot.

      Oh, hang on...

    2. Stu J
      FAIL

      @AC

      "Using this logic, killing someone (doing slutty things) doesn't make you a murderer (slut)."

      Are soldiers guilty of murder? If you accidentally kill someone, does that make you a murderer.

      No. Idiot.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      "...doing slutty things doesn't necessarily make you a slut."

      Members of the armed forces, US police officers, Texas executioners...

    4. ml100
      Thumb Down

      not Newton are you!

      Don't fault someone else's logic when your analogy isn't sound.

      Killing someone does not necessarily make you a murderer. The term murder refers to the unlawful killing of another human being with intent to do so.

      There are other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter)

      Then of course there's the lawful killing of others.

      Soldier <> Murderer

      Drunk driver <> Murderer

      Capital Punishment <> Murder

      For those who like a moral debate:

      Abortionist <> Murderer

  14. Dave Bell

    So what's new?

    The percentages don't sound so different from what I recall of my schooldays, 2 or 3 girls out of a co-ed class of 30 who had a bit of a reputation, and maybe some of it just boasting.

    And they weren't the ones I particularly wanted to see naked.

    Since most of this seems to come out of the USA, as a product of laws and law enforcers suffering from an excess of puritanical zeal, it's hard to know what to say. We seem to have acquired far too many of the same sorts of law in this country. This government did some good things back in the last century, but it has gone badly off the rails, in a mangled train wreck of unfinished reform, corruption, and ill-drafted legislation.

    These days, JS could be on the Sex Offenders Register for the relatively minor things I know she did. As for what she claimed to have done, this lot might lock her up and throw away the key.

    In the distant past, people like that were Sectioned under mental health laws. They were declared insane, and put away out of sight. And, eventually, we decided that was wrong. This is much the same misbehaviour, given a false significance with a new technology. I can see the reasons to discourage sexting, but the way we've extended the anti-possession child porn laws suggests that, to politicians, every hammer is a screwdriver.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Slutty things

    Nudity is not slutty.

    Drinking alcohol does not make you a violent alcoholic.

    Watching war films does not make you a war criminal.

    Watching porn does not make you a rapist.

  16. Havin_it
    Unhappy

    O RLY?

    >...boys think naked pictures are "hot" while girls consider them "slutty".

    Get the feeling this question was framed only in the context of naked pictures of females, mmm?

    Sadly, the gender prejudices of the "elders and betters" [snort] are still being passed to the younguns. I bet none of the males who've sent pictures of their junk have been labelled "sluts". This attitude is why even in our ever-so enlightened society, so many rapes (*real* sexual crime, remember that?) go unpunished.

    1. SirTainleyBarking
      Badgers

      From what (Barely) remember as being a teen

      Most teenage boys are too insecure about whats growing in the old trouser department to even think about Sexting it, in case the recipient calls them a pee-wee or whatever the teen phrase is these days.

      *Ahem* not that ever was a problem personally you understand...........

  17. ElFatbob

    spidoing28

    'remind me why naked pics are bad again?'

    In this context, i'd say only because there is a high chance of them appearing on the internet at some point. And once up....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      the lesson

      being to avoid showing your face or anything else that could positively identify you in the future. Reduces the impact of the photos, sure, but it's better than becoming the next Paris Hilton.

      1. Vigilant Mouse

        Showing your face

        Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

        Reminds me of the old story of the two Oxford dons sunbathing at Parson's Pleasure (part of river bank where male nudity was permitted and females in punts had to disembark and walk round a path at the back to avoid embarrassment). One day a punt-load of young ladies decide to ignore the rule and punt straight past. Flustered dons grab towels and cover selves....when women gone, one don asks why other had covered his head, while he had covered his nether regions. "What on earth did you think they'd recognise?" replies the other.

    2. Graham Marsden

      @ElFatbob

      Just because a naked picture appears on the internet doesn't make it bad, unless you're some prudish, narrow-minded prod-nose who thinks that it makes someone "a slut" or unsuitable to work as a teacher/ social worker/ whatever.

      The correct answer to "why are naked pics bad" is "they aren't, now fnck off and mind your own business..."

  18. webdude

    Maybe old people ......

    Maybe old people should just mind their business and leave others alone. The world will survive without you.

  19. Stuart Halliday
    Thumb Up

    No Empathy teaching is a major problem.

    Scientific fact that just after puberty hits kids, their brain gets rewired and they loose virtually all empathy they may have gathered whilst children. (Individual subjects vary with intensity of course).

    This means they don't care what other people say or do as they can't judge emotion accurately or understand the results of their actions for up to several years. Some as much as 10.

    If only during this difficult time the Health Service would treat it as a possible medical problem, diagnose the severalty of the issue and treat for it with counselling until the trauma is over.

    We'd have much less crime and violence.

    Nice to see studies in USA starting to happen. Maybe one day, every kid will get it?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @Stuart Halliday

    [citation needed]

  21. Charles Manning

    So more kids have cameras with them all the time

    When I was in my teens very few people carried cameras around with them and you'd have to take the roll of film down to the shops for processing, by which time you'd have had time to wonder whether it is wise to send that pic.

    More kids have cameras with them all the time with the added benefit of being able to immediately send a picture to someone else with no cool-down period.

    Anyone surprised?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and also hesitate

      to take the photos in the first place, knowing that the developer will get a good look at them. Nothing prevents them from making copies for their own, ahem, enjoyment.

  22. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    A prediction...

    In 50 years time if your naked pic cannot be found on the Internet you'd be considered a perv.

  23. Chris Bradshaw
    Boffin

    Keep it in perspective...

    I am much more concerned about teenage promiscuity, with diseases and pregnancies, than teenage sexting.

    A nude picture of someone published on the internet is one thing, unpleasant in a social sense but it does not damage someone's life or your body forever.

    AIDS, other STDs, pregnancy, teenage motherhood will all change a person's life forever. Even an abortion can cause problems later in life.

  24. Malcolm Boura 2

    It's attitudes, not the nudity, which is the problem

    If we as a society had a more sensible and mature attitude to nudity then nude photographs would not be a problem. There is no evidence to show that nudity is inherently harmful to anyone of any age. There is substantial evidence that the attitudes associated with prudery result in widespread and often serious harm but there is incredible reluctance to face up to the implications.

    It is a classic example of what happens when dealing with social issues is driven by prejudcice. Identify a problem, misidentify the cause of the problem, and then make it worse by targetting the wrong thing.

    Prudery is child abuse with good intentions. The research evidence is absolutely clear.

  25. Dawn
    Alert

    Wow!

    This is a great article! I'm so glad that someone has finally decided to discuss the issue of digital abuse. Have you guys heard about the competition where young adults and teens can create an idea of their own to help end digital abuse? The winning idea gets $10,000!

    www.athinline.org/challenge

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