Sexting Among Ethnic Minority Urban High School Students

Sexting, the use of technology to send or receive sexually explicit messages, photos, or videos, is a relatively new trend and, in many cases, has legal implications. As many as 25-50% of young people may participate in sexting. A close-up look at the sexting practices of a group of urban ethnic minority youths is presented in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

In fact, sexting is relatively common among ethnic minority youth, according to Melissa Fleschler Peskin, PhD and coauthors, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health. They calculated the prevalence of sexting based on data collected from more than 1,000 tenth graders from a large urban school district. They reported that 20% of students reported sending a nude or semi-nude picture or video or a sexual text message—any one of these considered a "sext"—and more than 30% reported receiving a sext.

Additional, sexts were often shared with unintended recipients, and one-third of the youths reported sharing or receiving sexts that were meant to be private.