‘Sexting’ Survey Shines Light on Pressure Faced by Teens

‘Sexting’ Survey Shines Light on Pressure Faced by Teens: According to new research published by the NSPCC and Childline, as many as 6 in 10 teenagers say they have been asked for sexual images or videos. Two fifths stated that they had created one of those, and around twenty-five percent said that they had gone as far as to send one to someone else via the text message (SMS) feature on their mobile phone. The data is based on research carried out with 450 teenage respondents from across the country.

‘Sexting’ Survey Shines Light on Pressure Faced by Teens

‘Sexting’ Survey Shines Light on Pressure Faced by Teens. Image by  “PictureYouth” via Wikimedia Commons.

The head of the NSPCC, Peter Wanless, noted that ‘sexting’ was becoming much more common, and was increasingly becoming a ‘fixture’ of adolescent relationships.

Among those who had distributed images via text, almost three fifths (58%) said that they had sent the images to someone they were romantically involved with – a boyfriend or girlfriend. A third said they had sent the images to someone they knew online but had never met. Around 15% said that they had sent the material to a complete stranger.

One of the key findings of the report, and a major issue in this kind of ‘sexting’ activity, was that once the images had been sent, a fifth said that they knew their picture had been shared with other people in addition to the intended recipient, whilst almost an additional third (28%) said they were unsure whether it had been shared or not.

More than half of those who responded to the survey said that they had received a sexual photo or video – one third of these people received the image from a stranger.

Although it is legal to engage in sexual relations at the age of 16 under British law, it is in fact illegal to hold, create, distribute and share indecent pictures of anyone under 18. Despite this, it is unlikely that teenagers will be prosecuted for ‘sexting’.

We welcome comments from all our readers - so please feel free to express your views in the space below. You can also sign up to receive posts directly to your inbox, free of charge. Additionally, education professionals may be interested in joining our community.

In addition, please feel free to follow The VoicED Community on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.