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Teens, Sexting and 'Cyberbaiting'

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This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglishJust how common is teen sexting? Last week we reported on a new study of more than fifteen hundred Internet users age ten to seventeen. It found that only two and a half percent of them had sexted in the past year. It also found that only one percent of the images might violate child pornography laws. That study came from the University of New Hampshire. But another new report suggests much higher rates. Both studies defined "sexting" only to mean sending or receiving naked pictures. Psychologist Jeff Temple is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He says, "We found actually about twenty-eight percent of teens had sexted." Mr. Temple says reports from medical offices and school officials support that finding. "One of the authors that will be on our paper with our data is a pediatrician. And he certainly sees this in his office. And from talking to school personnel and teens themselves, it certainly seems like it's happening quite a bit more frequently than the one percent reported in the New Hampshire study." He also says the behavior was the same for boys and girls. "We found that about a third of girls had sent a naked picture of themselves to another teen and about a third of boys had sent a naked picture of themselves to another teen." Sexting is not the only issue involving teens and technology. A recent "Online Family Report" from computer security company Norton called attention to "cyberbaiting" in classrooms. Marian Merritt is the company's Internet safety advocate. She says: "Kids may engage in purposely taunting or teasing or harassing the teacher in order to get the teacher to have some kind of reaction or response that they then hope to capture on a cellphone camera, a video, and post online where people can viewit. Now this can be incredibly embarrassing and humiliating and damaging to the reputation of a teacher." Ms. Merritt says Norton surveyed more than two thousand three hundred teachers in twenty-four countries. "What we were surprised to learn is that one in five teachers globally knows somebody that it's happened to or has had it happen to themselves." The online survey also found that seventy percent of young people reported having had a negative experience online. Forty percent rated the experience as serious, including cyberbullying, cybercrime or being contacted by strangers. For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 19Dec2011)
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