Teen Sexting: More Than 1 in 10 L.A. School District Kids Do It

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Yet another academic study has found that more than 1 in 10 teens have been sexting lately. This research, however, is local: 1839 students in the L.A. Unified School District were questioned about their texting.

The results?

More than 15 percent of the kids, ages 10 to 18, said they've texted sexual images or messages, according to the study "Sexually Explicit Cell Phone Messaging Associated With Sexual Risk Among Adolescents," published this week in the journal Pediatrics.

That's actually less than another study, this one in July, found: The research discovered that about 1 in 4 teens in America have sexted.

Guess L.A. kids are more conservative.

In L.A., according to an "abstract" of the latest study, "54% reported knowing someone who had sent a sext." Maybe the L.A. teens were just lying about their own phone "manipulation."

In any case, the worry here is that kids who sext often end up having riskier sex. The study:

Participants who had sent sexually explicit cell phone messages or photos were statistically significantly more likely to have ever engaged in sexual intercourse, and exhibited a trend toward unprotected sex during their last sexual encounter

Researchers say teens need more information and warnings about sexual behavior, online and off:

Clinician-based, school-based, and cellphone-based programs targeting adolescents may mitigate the potential negative health consequences of sexting and sexual risk behavior by discussing age-appropriate prevention messages, such as safer sex and using condoms, within the context of adolescent technology use ...

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]