Examining sexting's effect among adolescent mobile phone users

Abstract

Sexting among teen mobile phone users is on the rise. This study examines adolescent mobile phone users' perceptions of the harmful effect of consensual sexting between two people in a romantic relationship, mass-circulated sexting, and sexting posted on the internet. Results of a survey of 236 US adolescents showed that respondents believed sexting to have a greater harm on others than on themselves. Furthermore, the respondents perceived sexting messages posted to the internet as more harmful than mass-circulated sexting, which in turn were more harmful than consensual sexting between two people. Additionally, we found a gendered effect of the third-person perception of sexting - both males and females believed other females were more harmed by sexting. This perception of girls, not boys, as the victims of sexting predicts willingness to support restrictions on sexting. On the other hand, the more respondents sexted, the less willing they were to support such restrictions.