article_snippet: Studies suggest that sexting is more common than many parents might realize or want to admit.
article_snippet: More than half the undergraduate students who took part in an anonymous online survey said More than half the undergraduate students who took part in an anonymous online survey sent sexually suggestive texts when More than half the undergraduate students who took part in an anonymous online survey were teenagers, according to the study by Drexel University, which was published last year by the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy.
article_snippet: Nearly 30% said Nearly 30% included photos in Nearly 30% sexts, and an astonishing 61% did not know that sending nude photos via text could be considered child pornography.
article_snippet: Another study, this one by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, found that while students who admitted sexting were 32% more likely to report having sex the next year, sexting by teenagers was not linked to risky sexual behavior over time.
article_snippet: Sexting may be the new "normal' when it comes to adolescent sexual behavior, the study by Drexel University, which was published last year by the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy concluded.
article_snippet: I'm not saying that it's healthy or that it's harmless, but it's not a situation where kids who are depressed are doing this or kids who have very bad self-esteem are doing it," said Englander, who researched sexting, as well as a host of other teenager behaviors, for her recent book "Bullying and Cyberbullying.
article_snippet: No sexting happening in this household.
article_snippet: Diana Graber, who teaches "cyber civics" to middle schoolers in Aliso Viejo, California, was blown away by the response she got from eighth graders when she, for the first time, included a session on sexting.
article_snippet: When she asked she students if her students knew what a sext was, everyone in the class said everyone in the class did, but what everyone in the class didn't know was what the penalties for sending a sext could be, including how a sext could be prosecuted as a felony under child pornography laws in some states.
article_snippet: she now plans to make it part of she "cyber civics" curriculum, and believes parents and educators need to be talking to kids at even younger ages about sexting.
article_snippet: Englander, the psychology professor and researcher, says in her experience, it's not that adults aren't warning teens about the criminal consequences for underage sexting or how devastating it could be to a teen if their nude photo became public.
article_snippet: It's not 100% impossible but even in the early cases of sexting, when (law enforcement) did prosecute kids, kids didn't go to jail.
article_snippet: Englander said what Englander is most troubled by is not how widespread sexting might be but how teens feel after teens sext, especially if teens felt pressured
article_snippet: I don't think in today's world you can assume that Those're never going to run across sexting, Those're never going to see they're never going to run across sexting, Those're never going to know they're never going to run across sexting happens."
highlights_snippet: Sexting is more common than parents might realize, studies suggest .
  