Prevalence of Teen Sexting in the United States

Studies show that teen sexting in the United States is on the rise.

Teen sexting has been a concern for parents, educators, and law enforcement since news outlets first published reports in 2009 stating that teen sexting was becoming a nationwide problem. Despite the alarm, early studies suggested a relatively low prevalence of teen sexting (Lenhart, 2009). However, the rise of smartphone ownership has meant that teen sexting has become more commonplace, as evidenced by Madigan, et al.’s (2018) results indicating that 14.8% of teens reported sending sexts and 27.4% reported receiving them.

The rise of smartphone ownership has meant that teen sexting has become more commonplace.

Patchin & Hinduja (2017) described similar findings, but distinguished their results between teens sexting with a romantic partner (17.6%) versus sexting someone who was not a romantic interest (18%). Widman, et al.’s (2021) findings were even higher - 72% of respondents reported receiving a sext and 48% reported sending a sext within the last year. This could be explained by Widman et al. (2021) surveying older high school students, which is consistent with Patchin & Hinduja’s (2017) findings that older students sext at a higher rate than younger students.

Because teens are removed from experiencing another person’s live reaction to their sext, they feel safe, free from shame or humiliation, and think, “It’s no big deal” (Geltman, 2014, p. 151). Patchin & Hinduja (2017) found that 63.9% of teens whose boyfriends/girlfriends asked them to send a sext, did so. Forty-three percent of respondents complied with requests for sexts from someone who was not a romantic partner (Patchin & Hinduja, 2017). Additionally, non-heterosexual students reported a significantly higher rate of sexting than heterosexual students, as did older students (Patchin & Hindjua, 2017). Madigan, et al. (2018) also found that “approximately 1 in 8 youth reports either forwarding or having a sext forwarded without their consent (p. 333).”

“Sexting might now be part and parcel of the script in twenty-first-century flirting and romantic relationships.”

Muldavin (2019) said that sexting “affords young people a mechanism for developing romantic relationships, increasing their social mobility, and exploring their emerging sexuality (p. 440).” Patchin & Hinduja (2017) agreed, stating that “sexting might now be part and parcel of the script in twenty-first-century flirting and romantic relationships” (p. 2334). However, it should be noted that while sexting appears to be more commonplace than it was ten years ago, Patchin & Hinduja (2017) and Madigan, et al.’s (2018) findings show that the majority of teens do not participate in sexting.

References

1. Geltman, J. (2014). A survival guide to parenting teens: Talking to your kids about sexting, drinking, drugs, and other things that freak you out. American Management Association.

2. Lenhart, A. (2009). Teens and sexting [PDF]. Pew Research Center.

3. Madigan, S., Ly, A., Rash, C. L., Van Ouytsel, J., & Temple, J. R. (2018). Prevalence of multiple forms of sexting behavior among youth: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatrics, 172(4), 327-335.

4. Muldavin, K. (2019). Cruel to be kind: The societal response to technology and youth sexual expression. Lewis & Clark Law Review, 23(1), 425-463.

5. Patchin, J. and Hinduja, S. (2017). The nature and extent of sexting among a national sample of middle and high school students. U.S. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(8), 2333-2343.

6. Widman, L., Javidi, H., Maheux, A. J., Evans, R., Nesi, J., & Choukas-Bradley, S. (2021). Sexual communication in the digital age: Adolescent sexual communication with parents and friends about sexting, pornography, and starting relationships online. Sexuality & Culture, 25(6), 2092-2109.