“OMG! Did you get that sext?!?”: Sexting behaviors and influence in an undergraduate students population

In the United States, technology and Internet are a large part of our lives in today's society. Having the ability to connect with their friends through social media and technology is a social norm for teenagers and young adults. Studies show that 75% of teens in today's society have their own cell phone. Also, 54% of teens text daily and half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day. The increase in texting has led to this new form of sexual health communication called “sexting”. According to the Oxford Dictionary, sexting is defined as “sending sexually explicit messages or photographs via mobile devices”. This project surveyed undergraduate students from a southern large university to ask questions about their sexual health behaviors, specifically sexting. The survey will explore the types of messages that are being sent, why college students are sexting who they are sending the messages too, trends between males and females, and correlations between sexting and sexual activity. Our pilot data shows that around 60% undergraduate students have sent a sext at least once and 67% have received a sext at least once. Understanding sexting as a new area of research will allow researchers to identify the influence it has on sexual behaviors. The behaviors of undergraduate students in this study emphasize the need for education on the legal and social consequences of sexting.