Teenagers of Today Pressured to Sext to Fit in, Study Concluded

Article first published as Teenagers of today pressured to sext to fit in, study concluded on Technorati.

Author: Bennie Hubbard
Published: September 30, 2011 at 3:57 am

Teen are influenced and pressured to sext, sending explicit pictures of them selves through Text Messages and Picture Messages. Teens today are being pressured to conform to this new generation of explicit activity in an attempt of fitting in and even on a wider scale being persuaded by socialized media of today.

Melbourne University researcher Shelley Walker, interviewed 15 males and 19 females, between the ages of 15-20 to conduct a survey on sexting. All participants had similar stories to share on the topic of sexting. She gave vignettes of the lurid images the interviewees had described, including pictures of nudity and sex acts.

Given support by the federal health department, Shelley Walker said it highlighted the need for young people to have a greater say in how to respond to the phenomenon of sexting.

She said the study drew attention to the potentially pervasive nature of sexting.

The interviewees commented on the overwhelming influence of sexual nature of advertising and the sexual behaviour of adult role models, including those in music videos, where this kind of behavior is encouraged.

There was also an app that could be downloaded to your phone to encourage sexting, which although it promoted safe sex, "does highlight how potentially normalised this behavior has become"

She quoted a 16 year old boys concerns on the problem of sexting and feared it might be everywhere, the young boy said the problem of sexting hasn't been taken seriously.

Another speaker said candid early sex education would not only result in Australian teenagers having their first sexual experience later but also reduce unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

Researcher Alan McKee said the more relaxed and open approach to sex education in the Netherlands had delivered a significantly better result for young people, contradicting the grim warnings of child sexualisation voiced in Australia.
Professor McKee, who heads a sexuality development research project at Queensland University of Technology, said the campaign by those claiming early sex education prompts "sexualisation of children" was counterproductive and resulted in Australian teenagers having first sex, on average, 18 months earlier than Dutch teens.

He said there was a significantly more open and relaxed approach to discussion of sexuality by Dutch youth and their parents, where the average age of first sex relationships was 17½ compared with 16 in Australia.

The Netherlands also had a significantly lower rate of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies among young people.

Professor McKee said early comprehensive sex education did not encourage early sex but did prevent ignorant sex.

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