A new survey of hundreds of high school students in the Houston area finds that 28 percent have “sexted” — sent a naked photo of themselves through email or cell-phone texting. And more than half said they’d been asked to send someone else a naked photo, HealthDay reports. Boys were more likely than girls to ask for naked photos, and girls were more likely to be asked to send a photo, the survey found. Touted as the most advanced research on sexting in the United States, the survey does have limitations: The group of students surveyed had a higher rate of ethnic minorities than in American public schools overall, and only those whose parents agreed were allowed to answer the questions. Still, the findings suggest that sexting, the practice of sending explicit material or information via texting, “is a fairly prevalent behavior among teens,” said study lead author Jeff R. Temple, a psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. “And teens who engage in sexting behaviors may be more likely to have had sex. In other words, sexting may be a fairly reliable indicator of sexual behaviors.”
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