Social Media, Mobile Phones & SextingSocial Media, Mobile Phones and Sexting (+older archives)

  • A new study in JAMA Pediatrics has identified a connection between tablet use and emotional outbursts in young children. The study followed 315 preschoolers over two years and found that those who spent more time on tablets at age 3 1/2 were more likely to exhibit signs of anger and frustration by age 4 1/2. 
    The research also revealed that children more prone to anger at age 4 1/2 often increased their tablet use by age 5 1/2, suggesting that while excessive screen time might trigger emotional issues, those same issues can drive kids to rely on screens even more, creating a tough-to-break cycle.
  •  56% of parents said their children's location sharing is turned on, making their location publicly accessible across several mobile apps; 31% said their children have been contacted by a stranger on their mobile device; Nearly one-third (28%) said the stranger referenced their child's location. (Cox Mobile Survey, February 2024)
  • From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims—primarily boys—and led to at least 20 suicides. (FBI Public Affairs, Memphis, January 2024)
  • According to an analysis of reports made to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), reports of CSAM on Discord increased by 474% from 2021 to 2022. (NBC News, June 21, 2023)
  • Although age 13 is commonly the required minimum age for users of social media platforms, nearly 40% of children ages 8 through 12 still use the platforms, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
  • 31 percent of 8-year-olds owned a smartphone, nearly tripling from 2015. (Statista, Published October 14, 2022)
  • Among 12-17 year olds, approximately 53% have seen pornography, with an average age of 11.5 years old at first exposure. Almost 15% of adolescents had sent a sext and 24.3% had received a sext. The correlation between pornography use and sending a sext was significant (Pornography Use and Sexting Trends Among American Adolescents: Data to Inform School Counseling Programming and Practice, October 23, 2022)
  • Reports of online enticement, including sextortion, increased by 265% from 2018 to 2021. In 2018, the CyberTipline received 12,070 reports. In 2021, the line received 44,155. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, February 2022)
  • A growing body of evidence shows that social media use by children has been linked to higher rates of anxiety and depression (Mayo Clinic, February 26, 2022)
  • Minors are regularly approached online by someone they believe is attempting to "befriend and manipulate" them.
    4 in 10 minors (40%) said they have been approached online by someone they believe was attempting "to befriend and manipulate" them, with 47% of teen girls saying they have experienced this. (Thorn: Online Grooming: Examining risky encounters amid everyday digital socialization, April 2022)
  • Young people are frequently asked for nudes by contacts they only know online.
    40% of minors have experienced cold solicitations for nudes online, including roughly 1 in 4 (28%) of 9-12-year-olds. (Thorn: Online Grooming: Examining risky encounters amid everyday digital socialization, April 2022)
  • Online-only contacts often ask young people to move conversations from public platforms to private chats, increasing the vulnerability and opportunities for abuse.
    Nearly 2 in 3 (65%) minors said they have experienced an online-only contact to invite them "to move from a public chat into a private conversation on a different platform." (Thorn: Online Grooming: Examining risky encounters amid everyday digital socialization, April 2022)
  • Use of screen media is up 17% for teens and tweens since the start of the pandemic (from 2019 to 2021.) Between 2019 and 2021, the total amount of screen media used each day went from 4:44 to 5:33 among tweens, and from 7:22 to 8:39 among teens. This is a much faster increase in just two years than was seen in the previous four years. (Common Sense Media: Media Use by Teens and Tweens, March 2022)
  • Researchers have observed a "three-fold" increase in self-generated imagery depicting 7 to 10-year-olds, as they were increasingly targeted and groomed by internet predators on an industrial scale. (Internet Watch Foundation, January 13, 2022)
  • Nearly 1 in 7 children aged 9-12 shared their own nude photos last year (2020), almost triple the number from just one year earlier. The report also found a sharp increase in the number of children - again aged 9-12 - who admitted that they'd seen non-consensually re-shared nudes of others. Self-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material: Youth Attitudes and Experiences in 2020, (Thorn, November 2021)
  • 34% of 13- to 14-year-olds said it is normal for kids to share self-generated nude photos of themselves with others. (Self-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material: Youth Attitudes and Experiences in 2020, (Thorn, November 2021)
  • Twenty-five percent of 9- to 17-year-olds report having had an online sexually explicit interaction with someone they believed to be an adult (Self-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material: Youth Attitudes and Experiences in 2020, (Thorn, November 2021)
  • Algorithms designed to maximize engagement often promote harmful content, often aimed at young people's greatest vulnerabilities, such as their interest in dieting or self-harm (Inside TikTok's Algorithm: A WSJ Video Investigation, July 21, 2021)
  • In 2020, the IWF confirmed 68,000 cases of self-generated imagery. It now accounts for nearly half (44%) the imagery IWF took action on last year (IWF analysts confirmed 153,350 reports of child sexual abuse material in total). This is a 77% increase on 2019's total of 38,400 reports which included "self-generated" material. New analysis shows in 80% of these cases, the victims were 11- to 13-year-old girls. (Internet Watch Foundation, April 21, 2021)

  • Forty-five percent of kids under the age of 13 already use Facebook daily while 40% of children surveyed in that age group use Instagram, according to a report from the nonprofit Thorn. (May 2021)

  • Children's screen time had doubled by May (2020) as compared with the same period in the year prior, according to Qustodio, a company that tracks usage on tens of thousands of devices used by children, ages 4 to 15, worldwide. The data showed that usage increased as time passed: In the United States, for instance, children spent, on average, 97 minutes a day on YouTube in March and April, up from 57 minutes in February, and nearly double the use a year prior - with similar trends found in Britain and Spain. (New York Times, Jan. 27, 2021)

  • Of 2,167 UK five- to 16-year-olds, said 53% of youngsters owned mobile phones by around the age of seven. by age 11, 90% had their own device, and phone ownership was "almost universal" once children were in secondary school. 57% of all the children surveyed said they always slept with their phone by their bed. (CHILDWISE Monitor report 2020)

  • More than a third of parents with a child under 12 say their child began interacting with a smartphone before the age of 5. In 2020, nearly 1 in 5 parents (17 percent) of a child 11 or younger had given their child their own phone. (Pew Research Center, July 28, 2020).

  • The number of sexts children attempted to send (including girls as young as 6) had risen 183% during the lockdown.(SafeToNet, June 24, 2020).

  • 1 in 5 Of girls (aged 13-17) agreed that they have shared their own nudes. 1 in 10 Of boys (aged 13-17) reported that they have shared their own nudes. 40% Agreed that "it's normal for people my age to share nudes with each other (Thorn, "Self-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material: Attitudes and Experiences" August 2020)

  • Almost half (46 per cent) of young people aged 12-16 feel they're addicted to their smartphones (Digital Wellbeing 2020, The Cybersmile Foundation)
  • New data reveals that self-generated imagery now accounts for nearly a third of web pages featuring sexual images of children actioned by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). More than three quarters of the self-generated material - be it images or videos -feature 11 to 13-year-old children, of which the majority are girls. (Internet Watch Foundation, Jan. 15, 2020)
  • By age 11, a majority (53%) of kids have their own smartphone, and by 12 more than two-thirds (69%) do. (Common Sense Media, 2019)

  • Nearly 40 percent of children have either received and/or sent a "sext" by the age of 13, the study conducted by parenting app Jiminy found. (December 18, 2019)

  • The number of young Americans watching online videos every day has more than doubled. The survey of American youth included the responses of 1,677 young people, ages 8 to 18. Among other things, it found that 56% of 8- to 12-year-olds and 69% of 13- to 18-year-olds watch online videos every day. In 2015, the last time the survey was conducted, those figures were 24% and 34%, respectively. (Common Sense Media, October 29, 2019)
  • A survey of almost 4,000 children aged between eight and thirteen has found: 43% are speaking to strangers online, with a third of them speaking to strangers every day or at least once a week. A high proportion of boys, including 36% of 8-year olds boys and 43% of 10 year old boys, are playing over-18s games and being exposed to violent and sexual content that is not appropriate for their age. (Cybersafe Ireland, Sept 10, 2019).
  • A study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry suggests that teenagers who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to develop mental health problems including depression, anxiety, aggression, and antisocial behavior. (JAMA Psychiatry. Published online September 11, 2019)
  • The amount of time people spend on social media is constantly increasing. Teens now spend up to nine hours a day on social platforms, while 30% of all time spent online is now allocated to social media interaction. And the majority of that time is on mobile - 60% of social media time spent is facilitated by a mobile device. (socialmediatoday.com - accessed 8/2/19)

2018

  • One in seven teens report that they are sending sexts, and one in four are receiving sexts, according to a study of over 110,000 teens from around the world. (JAMA Pediatrics, April 2018)

  • 95% of teens now report they have a smartphone or access to one. These mobile connections are in turn fueling more-persistent online activities: 45% of teens now say they are online on a near-constant basis. (Teens, Social Media and Technology, Pew Research Center 2018)

  • For every additional hour young people spend on social media or watching television, the severity of depressive symptoms they experience goes up, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics (July 2019)

  • Among 13-17 year olds in the United States, a 2018 study (Social Media, Social Life) conducted by Common Sense Media in 2018 found:

    Teens overwhelmingly choose Snapchat (41 %) as their main social media site, followed by Instagram (22%) and Facebook (15%)

    • Social media use has increased dramatically by teens. 89% have a smart phone (compared to 41% in 2012), and 70% of teens are on social media multiple times a day (compared to 34% in 2012).
    • 54% of teens report that if parents knew what actually happened on social media, they'd be a lot more worried about it.
    • 1 in 5 teens report says they check notifications while driving at least sometimes. 44% say they "never" do. (Distracted driving)
  • Teens with low social-emotional well-being experience more of the negative effects of social media than kids with high social-emotional well-being. "Social Media, Social Life 2018" by Common Sense Media"
  • At least one in four teens are receiving sexually explicit texts and emails, and at least one in seven are sending sexts. More than one in 10 teens are forwarding these sexts without consent, the study found. And roughly one in 12 teens have had sexts they sent shared without their permission. (Reuters Health, February 2018)

2017

  • Since 2013, the amount of time young kids spend on mobile devices has tripled from 15 minutes a day in 2013 to 48 minutes a day in 2017. (The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight 2017)
  • Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular social sites for Gen Z and Millennials, garnering 71 percent and 66 percent of mentions respectively. Facebook is at 54 percent while Twitter sits at 42 percent, though these are still trending with the youth, they have drifted since according to PEW Research, Facebook is a favorite for adults (parents included) at 74 percent. (Reportlinker.com, June 2017).

2016

  • There is a lack of clarity regarding the law around sexting: half of parents are unaware that it is illegal for a child to take a naked or sexual image of themselves and 28% do not know that it is illegal for a child to send a naked or sexual image to a peer. >(National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, August 2016)
  • Children are accessing pornography via mobile devices.PornHub said its users watched 4.6 billion hours of pornography in 2016, 61% via smartphone and 11% via tablet.
  • According to the Library of Congress, in the UK:.
    • 43 percent of nine- to 12-year-olds have a social media profile
    • One in three are on Facebook despite the 13-year-old age limit.
    • A quarter of those kids on Facebook never touch the privacy restrictions on their profile, and a fifth of them publicly display their address and/or phone number.
    • In regard to Victim ID Theft, Carnegie Mellon CyLabs says children are over 50 times as likely to have their social security number used by another person.
    • One in 40 families has a child who is a victim of identity theft, according to the Identity Theft Assistance Center and the Javelin Strategy & Research Group, and that figure is on the rise
      (Comparitech. "Protecting Children's Privacy - A Guide for Parents, Carers and Educators." April 20, 2016). Nearly 3,000 people aged 18 to 54 were surveyed and one in 10 respondents reported that someone had posted online or sent to others nude or seminude pictures of them without their permission and 9.6% reported that someone threatened to post such images or to send them to others (Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence Victimization: Results From an Online Survey of Australian Adults, October, 2016)
  • Nearly 3,000 people aged 18 to 54 were surveyed and one in 10 respondents reported that someone had posted online or sent to others nude or seminude pictures of them without their permission and 9.6% reported that someone threatened to post such images or to send them to others (Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence Victimization: Results From an Online Survey of Australian Adults, October, 2016)

2015

2014

  • Sexting behaviors are significantly associated with consuming pornography. Van Ouytsel J; Ponnet K; Walrave M. "The associations between adolescents' consumption of pornography and music videos and their sexting behavior," Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2014 Dec; 17(12): 722-8, at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2014.0365
  • 37% of 3 and 4 year olds use their parent's tablets and smartphones as do 87% of 5 to 7 year olds. (http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html - accessed June 6, 2014).
  • More than half (54%) of young adults ages 18-22 admit to sexting as minors.
    • 28% acknowledged sending photographic sexts.
    • Girls send photographic sexts twice as often as boys.
      Van Ouytsel J; Ponnet K; Walrave M. "The associations between adolescents' consumption of pornography and music videos and their sexting behavior," Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2014 Dec; 17(12): 722-8, at http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2014.0365
  • A third of 11 to 14 year olds have watched porn on a mobile device. Jonathan Blake, "Mobile porn access 'damaging' children and teenagers," BBC Newsbeat, 2/11/14, at http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/04/20/teens-and-mobile-phones/
  • About half of 15 to 17 year olds have accessed pornography on a smartphone or tablet. Jonathan Blake, "Mobile porn access 'damaging' children and teenagers," BBC Newsbeat, 2/11/14, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/26122390
  • Music video consumption is significantly associated with asking someone for a sexting message, especially for boys. Ouytsel, J., Ponnet, K. & Walrave, M. (2014) "The Associations Between Adolescents' Consumption of Pornography and Music Videos and Their Sexting Behavior." Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Vol 17 (12).
  • Dr Mariek Vanden Abeele highlights that peer pressure and popularity are key factors in why teens sext, despite knowing the potential risks. "Sex and the Media" issue of Routledge's Media Psychology, authors Mariek Vanden Abeele, Ph.D., Scott W Campbell, PhD., Steven Eggermont, PhD., and Keith Roe, PhD 2014

2013

Social Media is now the number one activity on the web

  • 93 % of teen Facebook users share their real name (PEW Research Center, 2013)
  • 92% of teen Facebook users share pictures of themselves (PEW Research Center, 2013)
  • 21% of teen Facebook users share their personal cell phone number (PEW Research Center, 2013)
  • 25% of teen Facebook users share videos of themselves (PEW Reseach Center, 2013)
  • 95% of teens use the internet (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2013)
  • One-third of youth ages 11 to 17 have their own cell phones today; it is expected that half will have them within the next two years (English, Bella. "The Secret Life of Boys: Pornography is a Mouse Click Away, and Kids Are Being Exposed To It In Ever-Increasing Numbers." http://www.boston.com/ae/media...12/secret_life_of_boys/)
  • According to a 2013 ChildLine poll of 500 children in the UK, ages 13 to 18:
    • 60% said they have been asked for explicit photos or videos of themselves.
    • 38% said they had created a sext. Of these, 32% said they had sent it to someone they knew online only (not in real life).
    • Of those who sent a sext, 20% said it had been shared with others, and 28% said they did not know if it was shared. Daniel Martin, "60% of teens face 'sexting' pressure: More than half have been asked to take explicit self-portrait in practice that is now seen as 'pretty normal' by youngsters," DailyMail.co.uk. Oct. 16, 2013. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ article-2463751/Sexting-More-half-teens-asked-explicit-self-portraits.html (accessed Dec. 29, 2015)

2012

  • 88% of the self-generated, sexually explicit online images and videos of young people their analysts encountered had been taken from their original location and uploaded onto other websites. (Internet Watch Foundation, 2012).
  • 3 in 10 teens text more than 100 times a day (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2012