Digital communication has had a deep impact on the way we interact with others for both professional and personal reasons. The practise of sending someone sexually explicit photographs and/or messages via electronic devices, which is also known as ‘sexting’, has become increasingly common among youngsters. But this trend has raised some serious privacy concerns after a recent study has revealed that there’s an almost 25 per cent chance of sexts being leaked without consent.
A new study of around 6,000 single people, between the ages of 21 to 75, showed that 60 per cent admitted that they believed that their reputation would be seriously tarnished if their sexts were seen by anyone other than the intended recipients. On the other hand, those who confessed to leaking erotic texts even went on to say that they shared them typically with more than three friends. It was also discovered that men were found to be twice as likely to share sexts as women.
“For some, sexting may lead to positive outcomes such as increased partner intimacy and satisfaction. For others, it may lead to negative outcomes such as lowered self-esteem or damage to reputation,” opines one of the study’s authors, Justin Garcia. The study was carried out by researchers at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.
