By nature, Selfies convey strong visual messages and at times these can be quite suggestive.

Social validation matters amongst teens. 

According to clinical psychologist Dr. A. Letamendi, Selfies provide a way for teens to find their feet with peers through sharing images and chatting/gossiping about them. However, that doesn’t mean that all such self-portraits are acceptable.

For example, a study by McAfee in 2012 found that of the 21.5% of teens who post photos online, 7.5% are in revealing clothing. And from there, the step to "no clothing" at all is very easy.

Sexting is defined as: “The practice of taking a nude or partially nude image of oneself and sharing it with others.” 

The challenge for teens is that they often act on impulse and don’t think through the consequences of their actions. As such, sexting has now emerged as a major phenomenon.

Indeed, Irish forensic psychologist Dr Maureen Griffin considers sexting to be a national concern with 1-in-4 Irish children as young as 10 years old partaking in the practice.

Additionally, a survey by Cosmo.girl (in 2008) revealed that 69% of teens have sent a nude or semi-nude picture or videos of themselves to a boyfriend or girlfriend.

The tragedy is that these images can be shared so easily. And one they are out in the wild, it is very hard to get them back.

(This is where SelfieCop can help. SelfieCop deters teens from "sexting" in the first place. Learn more about the SelfieCop App.)

Here are some more worrying statistics about the prevalence of sexting among young people:

• 60% of teenagers have been asked for sexual images of themselves. 
• 44% of teens say sexts are commonly shared amongst third parties.
• 50% of sexting is coercive, with twice as many girls than boys being affected.
• 4% of boys have seen sexual images of girls in their school. 
• 5% of boys have disseminated sexts on breaking up with their partners. 

References: https://www.selfiecop.com/research/index.htm

As Lori Andrews in the Institute for Science, Law and Technology in Chicago stated "Teen sexting is all a way of magnifying girls' fantasies of being a star of their own movies, and boys locked in a room bragging about sexual conquest. It's a perfect storm of technology and hormones." 

But like every storm, this one too has its victims. As you’ll learn in our next blog post, Sexting is ruining the reputations and futures of children around the world.

Download lots more stats in our summary report, SelfieCop - Stats about Selfies & Sexting (PDF 500KB)