In most of the episodes, the person responsible – when it was not the respondent – was someone the young person knew. Adults were involved in a minority of the incidents, and they were all young adults aged 18-21 years. An aggravating component, such as alcohol or drug use, was involved in 31% of incidents. "The most commonly reported reason for incidents was ‘romance as part of an existing relationship’; pranks and jokes; or trying to start a relationship," wrote Dr. Mitchell and her associates at Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
Twenty-one percent of the respondents who appeared in or created images said they were very or extremely upset, embarrassed or afraid, as did 25% who received sexting images.
"Our findings also raise the question of how sexting should be defined. As is often the case with popularly-inspired neologisms, the term sexting may be fatally compromised by its multiple and expansive colloquial use," the researchers noted. "Clearly, for many youth nude or nearly nude encompasses pictures that do not show naked breasts or genitals. Researchers and clinicians need to directly ask about the content of images."
Furthermore, "sexting may not indicate a dramatic change in youth risk taking or youth sexual behavior. It may just make some of that behavior more visible to adults and other authorities," they said.
In terms of disclosure, 28% of youth who appeared in or created sexting images and 28% who received images "either reported incidents to an authority (such as a parent, teacher, or police) or an authority found out in some other way," the researchers said.
Police Cases of Sexting
In the second study, Janis Wolak, J.D., and her coinvestigators at the Crimes Against Children Research Center empirically examined police-investigated sexting cases based on data gathered from interviews with investigators about a nationally representative sample of 675 sexting cases in 2008 and 2009 (Pediatrics 2011 Dec. 5 [doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2242]).
The data about sexting cases were collected as part of the Third National Juvenile Online Victimization Study, which is a stratified national sample of 2,712 law enforcement agencies. The agencies were asked by mail if they had handled sexting cases from 2008 or 2009. Detailed telephone interviews were then conducted about specific cases. In addition, interviewers wrote narrative descriptions of cases.
Again, because the term "sexting" is imprecise in its meaning, the researchers used a more specific expression – youth-produced sexual images. Specifically, the agencies were asked if they handled any cases from 2008 or 2009 that involved sexual images created by minors (age 17 or younger) and if these images were or could have been considered child pornography under the statutes of the local jurisdiction.
U.S. law enforcement agencies handled an estimated 3,477 cases of youth-produced sexual images during this time period; approximately 2,291 law enforcement agencies saw at least one such case during that time.
Of cases known to police, 36% involved adults. In 50% of the cases, the offenders were young adults (aged 18-24 years). A total of 38% involved adults aged at least 25 years. In 10% of cases, the adults were 18- or 19-year-old high school students who legitimately belonged to adolescent peer groups that included minors. The remainder of cases were of a mixed nature.
"Estimates of youth involved in sexting vary considerably depending on what activities are included in the concept of sexting."
Thirty-one percent of youth-only cases involved nonconsensual, malicious, exploitative, or criminal behavior. Among these cases, 19% involved criminal behavior in addition to the creation, dissemination, or possession of sexual images – such as blackmail or sexually abusing a younger minor. The most prevalent factor in these cases was the distribution of images without consent (57%).
The remaining cases (33%) were termed experimental. Thirty-two percent of experimental cases occurred in romantic relationships (10% of total cases), while the majority (57%) of cases involved sexual attention-seeking (19% of total cases). The rest (11%) were incidents with no apparent sexual motivation.
When adults were involved, arrests occurred in 62% of cases. Arrests occurred in 36% of youth-only aggravated cases; 5% of youth-only aggravated offenders (n = 10) were subjected to sex offender registration. In the experimental cases, 18% involved an arrest.
"The diversity of cases identified in the study clearly undermines some reports that suggest sexting is relatively harmless or confined to dating behavior. Only 10% of cases involved images created for or sent to established adolescent girlfriends or boyfriends. At the other extreme, youth-produced sexual images played a role in criminal sexual relationships between adult sex offenders and minors. Such cases can be challenging to pediatricians, parents, and authorities because underage victims may have strong attachments to adult offenders and may not perceive themselves as having been victimized. To manage these cases effectively, clinicians must be sensitive to the perceptions of victims and not assume that youth will be eager to cooperate or see the situation as criminal," the authors wrote.