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Mobile Statistics

73% of teens have or use a cell phone.[1]
About 1 in 5 (19%) of teens have engaged in some kind of sexting; of those, 9% sent a sext; 17% received a sext; and 3% forwarded a sext.[2]
53% of teens who sext are girls and 47% are boys.[3]
Sext senders are more likely to be girls than boys (65% girls vs. 35% boys)[4]
People who sext sender sent sext to:[5]

o 60% boyfriend/girlfriend

o 21% someone they had a crush on

o 19% ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend

o 14% best friend

o 18% friends other than their best friend

o 11% someone they don’t know

o 4% classmates

o 14% someone else

People who received sexts, received them from:[6]

o 75% received from boyfriend/girlfriend

o 49% someone they had a crush on

o 20% ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend

o 20% best friend

o 23% friends other than best friend

o 18% someone they don’t know

o 13% someone else

Why sext senders sent sext messages[7]

o 43% were asked

o 40% to have fun

o 21% to impress someone

o 18% to feel good about themselves

o 8% to try to date someone

o 4% as a joke

o 3% to make someone jealous

o 1% as a dare

o 29% some other reason

Friends of sext senders report that:[8]

o 6% report that photo was forwarded to an authority figure and their got in trouble

o 9% say that the photo was posted online where many people could see it

o 10% say that the person their friend sent it to threatened to send it to somebody else

o 12% accidentally sent the picture to the wrong person

o 13% were made fun of by the person that they sent the photo to

o 30% say the photo was forwarded to someone they didn’t want to see it

86% of sexters are not caught. Of those caught, 9% were caught by a parent, 1% were caught by a teacher, 3% were caught by an authority figure, and 3% were caught by someone else.[9]
23% of teens think sexting is fine as long as the people sending and receiving the sext think it’s ok (3% don’t think there is any problem with sexting.)[10]
52% of teens agree with the statement: “people my age are old enough to decide for themselves whether it is all right for them to send nude or sexually suggestive photos of themselves to other people”[11]
48% of teens agree that adults are overreacting when teens send sexually suggestive text messages and emails to each other.[12]

View Enough Is Enough's full library of statistics HERE.

[1] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[2] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[3] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[4] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[5] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[6] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[7] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[8] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[9] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[10] [10] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[11] [11] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

[12] [12] Teen Online & Wireless Safety Survey: Cyberbullying, Sexting and Parental Controls. Cox Communications Teen Online and Wireless Safety Survey in Partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2009.

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