What good would technology be if people weren't constantly using it to send naked pictures of themselves to each other? I would know, too—since the age of 12, my inbox has been filled with inappropriate photos of people whether I wanted to see them or not (in fact, there might be some in there right now). Like most tech trends, however, the oft-inadvisable act of sending nude photos to people on the Internet is being adopted en masse by young Internet users, with fairly large numbers of teenagers posting them online or—even worse—sending them to people they don't even know.
A survey of 1,280 teenagers (users age 13-19) and young adults (age 20-26) conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com has revealed that one out of five (20 percent) teens overall have posted nude photos or video of themselves on the Internet—that number goes up to a third when young adults are included. While 71 percent of teen girls and 67 percent of teen guys who have sent these photos say they've sent them to a boyfriend or girlfriend, 15 percent overall said they've sent nude photos to people they only "knew" online. For women, that percentage stays the same when they turn into young adults, although the percentage of young adult men goes up to 23 percent.
This is, of course, despite the fact that almost three quarters of all teens and young adults surveyed say that sending sexually-suggestive content "can have serious negative consequences." Clearly, this is an issue of "do as I say, not as I do." And don't for a minute think that your sexy recipient is necessarily keeping your photos private—a quarter of teen girls and a third of teen boys said that they've had nude images originally meant for someone else shared with them. Perhaps unsurprisingly (to me, anyway), that number stays about the same for young adult women, but 40 percent of young adult men say they've had images meant for someone else shared with them. Nothing, especially on the Internet, is sacred.
The organizations offer a handful of advice to young people to consider, such as the fact that nothing is truly anonymous, and there's no changing your mind after posting something online. Never, ever assume anything you post or send will remain private, and don't give into pressure to do something you're not comfortable doing, says the report. Of course, these are all mantras that most Internet users—young and old—already know, but that hasn't stopped most people from making poor decisions when it comes to putting questionable content online. As a number of young adults have already discovered, having unprofessional materials about you floating around online can hurt your chances of getting (or keeping) a job.
Maybe we should all take a step back from that iPhone camera for a minute and think before hitting that "send" button. No one's bare butt is that interesting anyway.
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