Teenagers ‘sext' to gain attention and few worry that it will affect their reputation, a new study has found.

Sexting refers to the sharing of sexually explicit text messages and/or naked/semi-naked self-pictures using mobile phones. It has become increasingly popular among teenagers in recent times, however not a lot of research has been carried out on the issue.

Researchers in Belgium decided to investigate further. They surveyed almost 500 teenagers aged between 15 and 18 on this topic.

They found that at least one in four of the young people had sexted in the two months before the survey.

The main reasons the teenagers gave for sexting were:
-To gain attention
-To lower the chances of getting a sexually transmitted infection (STI)
-To find a boyfriend/girlfriend.

The idea of earning a bad reputation or being blackmailed as a result of their sexting behaviour did not influence the young people's motivations.

"Remarkably, only the behavioural beliefs that expected positive outcomes of sexting were significant in predicting adolescents' willingness to engage in it," the researchers said.

They found that when it came to pressure to sext, the main sources of social pressure came from friends and romantic partners. Pressure from them outweighed the teenagers' own attitudes.

"The more positive the perceived social pressure that originates from these two categories of referents - who mostly belong to the peer group - the more adolescents will be inclined to engage in sexting," the researchers said.

They also noted that even the idea that parents would monitor their mobile phones did not appear to affect the teenagers' decision to sext.

The study pointed out that teenagers were more likely to sext if they completely trusted the person they were sending messages to. Furthermore, the more positive social pressure they received from romantic partners, the more likely they were to sext.

Overall, girls appeared to have a more negative attitude towards sexting than boys, however they also experienced more negative social pressure to sext than boys.

"Our results suggest that in order to reduce sexting among adolescents, preventive initiatives should allude to what significant others in teenagers' lives think about them engaging in sexting," the researchers said.

They added that this issue should be integrated into teenagers' sexual education and these young people should be taught techniques to cope with the pressure to sext.