The teen 'sexting' crisis

Sexually explicit text messages are a part of teen culture now—but how much a part, and how dangerous?

We have a major teen "sexting" problem — or we don't. A new Pew survey found that 4 percent of cellphone-wielding 12- to 17-year-olds have sent racy nude or partially nude photos of themselves over their phone, while 15 percent have received such "sexts." But those numbers double if you look at just 17-year-olds, and sexting has led to at least one death — 13-year-old Hope Witsell killed herself after a topless photo she sent a boy went viral. How concerned should we be about teen sexting? (Watch a report about teenagers' "sexting")

With celebrities doing it, parents don't have a chance: The sexting "phenomenon is much more widespread" than no-name teens, says Tamara Ikenberg in the Louisville Courier-Journal. "Rhianna does it. Tiger, too." And for those parents who might warn their kids off of ruining their lives this way, Rihanna is "upping the ante" — "If you don't send your boyfriend naked pictures, then I feel bad for him,” she said, after her nude sexts hit the Web.

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