Sexting and pornography or music video viewing among adolescents: Is there a link?

Are adolescents who view pornography or music videos more likely to engage in sexting, in which they share sexually explicit content via text, photo, or video using cell phones, email, or social networking sites? A study of the media consumption and sexting behavior of more than 300 teens is published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

In "The Associations Between Adolescents' Consumption of Pornography and Music Videos and Their Sexting Behavior," authors Joris Van Ouytsel, MSc, Koen Ponnet, PhD, and Michel Walrave, PhD, University of Antwerp, Belgium, determined whether viewing pornography or watching music videos was predictive of sexting among adolescents, involving sending or receiving sexually explicit text messages, pictures, or videos. They found a statistically significant link between pornography and sexting for both boys and girls.

"The results found in this study may be useful to consider during both prevention and treatment," says Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California and Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium.