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MyHealthNewsDaily
Teens who own a smartphone may be at increased risk for engaging in risky sex behavior, a new study suggests.
In the study, teens who had access to the Internet on their cellphones were more than twice as likely to engage in sex with a person they met online compared with those without access to the Internet on their phones. Teens with smartphones were also more likely to be sexually active in general, and more likely to say they had been approached for sex online.
The results held even after the researchers accounted for factors that could affect sexual behavior and cellphone use, such as age, gender, race and sexual orientation.
The study was presented here today (Oct. 30) at the annual meeting of the America Public Health Association.
Smartphones likely aren't directly causing risky teen sex, said study researcher Eric Rice, of the University of Southern California's School of Social Work in Los Angeles. Rather, smartphones may make it easier for teens to arrange sexual encounters, Rice said.
"It's a tool through which this sort of behavior can happen," Rice said.
While parents have come up with strategies to monitor the online behavior of their kids on computers, "I don’t know that we've thought through quite as clearly what it means for teens to have the Internet on their phones 24 hours a day," Rice said.
Rice said sex education programs should start to include discussions regarding the risks of seeking sex online. In addition, parents should use this as an opportunity to begin a discussion with their teen about sexual health and use of technology, he said.
"I don't want parents to freak out," Rice said.
The study involved about 1,840 high-school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District who were surveyed in the 2010 to 2011 school year. The majority (71 percent) identified as Hispanic or Latino.
About one-third said they had a smartphone, 5 percent said they used the Internet to seek sex partners, and 17 percent said they had been approached for sex online. For comparison, a Nielson survey released in September found about 58 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds now own a smartphone. Differences in demographic factors may have also played a role in smartphone ownership.
Forty-seven percent of teens who owned a smartphone said they were sexually active, compared with 35 percent of those who did not own a smartphone.
The researchers plan to submit their study for publication in a scientific journal.
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I have to wonder how much of a factor parenting style comes into play here. Stricter parents are less likely to allow their teens access to a smartphone and they are also more likely to keep tabs on what their kids are doing in general.
My parents were pretty strict... and I had sex when I was a teen. As long as I had a 4.0 GPA and didn't get in trouble they couldn't give a crap what I did.
No smart phone though... :-(
Joe,
You call you parents strict? Read your last sentence again...
Is it just me or does it seem much more likely that teens with smartphones just get caught more often due to electronic paper trails?
Teens having sex? What's next, politicians lying? The sun shining? Dogs barking? That is what they do people!
I have to agree that kids have zero business with a smartphone or any cell phone for that matter.
I have 2 daughters and they have already been told no cell phones till they are driving. Until they are leaving the house by themselves there is no reason for a cell phone. And they will get smartphones when they can buy their own smartphones.
Of course, I am not as oblivious as most parents seem to be. I realize my kids will probably already be having sex by that time. That is why I believe in safe sex education. Abstinence?!? Ha! You might as well step outside and tell the wind to stop blowing! It would do about as much good as telling teenagers not to have sex. Better to prepare them with the proper knowledge and tools, sex education and birth control.
I have noticed those that try to control their teens lives the stricktest are the ones who end up with half a dozen grandkids from half a dozen different deadbeat dads. No thanks!
livinginthewoods You nailed it. Well put.
So, this study basically found that white Los Angeles teenagers are partying. What a surprise.
"Differences in demographic factors may have also played a role..."
If your smart phone is smarter than you...you might be a redneck...apparently smartphones need to be sold with condoms.
People 13 through 19 wanting to have sex and having sex certainly isn't news. Sex is the biggest drive they have besides eating, thanks to nature. A smart phone just makes it easier. In my day dating in a big car resulted in more teens having sex than dating in a very small car. Same desire just different ways to get there.
People 13 through 19 wanting to have sex and having sex certainly isn't news. Sex is the biggest drive they have besides eating, thanks to nature. A smart phone just makes it easier. In my day dating in a big car resulted in more teens having sex than dating in a very small car. Same desire just different ways to get there.
Also lets flip this scenario and see how many adults run off to play with strangers the hock-up with online!
I can assure you its much greater than what the kids are doing. Much greater!
Or another way to look at the study is that teenagers that are having sex are more likely to own smartphones, rather than the other way around.
It just may be that the same person is more inquisitive and adventurous, not necessarily that one causes the other.
Another article about teen sex? Just means they're normal! Talk to them about the risks of what they are doing. Call the parents of the child your child is dating. Sit down with everyone and have the ole... We know exactly what is going on here... Once the kids realize that you know, they are more likely to open up to you with questions and dialogue which will go a long way to preventing unwanted pregnancies and exposure to disease.
The teenager I would have a problem with and try and curb their sexual habits is the young man or woman that is sleeping around with almost everyone.
That's a huge problem waiting to happen!
Hmmmm.......24/7 raging hormones + 24/7 access to social networking + 24/7 access to free mobile porn = sex?
No sh!t!
I agree Crimson, there is no reason to allow teens to have a smartphone... Parents are giving their children adult tools/toys and then they have easy access to the adult world. Kids/teens do not need any phone as far as I am concerned I made it through my childhood without one just fine as did generations of people. You can still use land line phones to check in. If you for some reason feel your child absolutely needs to have a phone for "safety" then a basic phone that makes only phone calls should more than suffice.
Allowing kids and teens access to internet and text messaging on mobile devices is just asking for issues. Not only problems with promiscuity/predators but distraction from studies. I was in a store just last night and saw a kid who was no more then 6 or 7 years old text messaging... I was appalled. When I was a kid/teen all phone calls had to be made in a public area of the home where they could be monitored. This was the norm for 95% percent of the other kids/teens I knew. Seems parents today find it a lot easier to give their kids/teens everything they desire rather than be a parent their children.
It is a no brainier to me that kids/teens walking around with smartphones or text enabled phones are at higher risk for sexual promiscuity as well as many other behavioral and educational issues.
That is so 20th century. Smartphone technology can be used for learning too. It's up to you how you encourage your kids to use it. If they know about STDs and the importance of a college degree, they'll be more careful to not do things they later regret.
Smart phone is a tool. You can use it for good or evil.
Don't blame the smart phone, blame the parent.
I made it through my childhood without the Internet just fine, as did generations of people. That doesn't mean it is viable today.
OMG! a 7 year old texting? Seriously. So? It is simply a form of communication. As long as the parent knows WHO they are texting, it isn't an issue. Do you freak out when you see kids whispering?
Yes, and so can home computers. But I seriously doubt that most teens use either for that purpose, given the test scores that are so frequently brought up in the news.
That is just a line that a typical teen uses to justfiy getting a smartphone.
Jewels, generations of young people also grew up without television and running water in the house. Technology evolves and we incorporate new technologies into our lives. Living in the 1950's is not the answer. The proper parenting strategy is to teach children how to use new technology safely.
From a scientific point of view we should be very cautious in our interpretation of the results of this study. The sample is drawn from a single west coast urban area and the sample was overwhelmingly hispanic. The accuracy of generalizing these results to the entire teen population of the US is VERY questionable.
I think you got it right joemike.
The trick with kids and technology is to stay ahead of them. As soon as they become more proficient with a computer than you are, you have lost all control.
I was born and raised in a majority hispanic area and then moved to a majority white area at 15. The difference was like night and day! Most kids in the hispanic neighborhood seemed to get started somewhere between 13-16 and in the white area it was more like 15-17. I am not trying to be racist at all, it is just part of the culture. While I saw white parents advising their kids to wait till they were in their mid twenties to get married and have kids, many hispanics felt their daughters were old maids if they were still childless and unmarried by twenty.
Of course this was not universal, the hispanics who were multigeneration Americans were less likely to be this way and were pretty much like any other American family.
Of course it could have as much to do with economic conditions as much as culture/nationality because I went from a poor urban hispanic area to a lower middle class suburban white area. Now I live in a poor white rural area and they seem to start spitting 'em out pretty early around here too. I guess when you are poor there is not much else to do.
It isn't technology, culture or money when people have matured and ready for sex they will work very hard to have sex. End of story, it is nature not man made items. This has been going on for tens of thousands of years. They just didn't report about it then.
As the mother of a teenage daughter. My daughter has had a cell phone for almost 4 years, we don't have a landline. Right now she's in another state going to a college preparatory school and staying with my mother, she'll get her drivers license in January, she's on the pill (for medical reasons) and still a virgin. She has a smart phone AND her own computer with the internet *gasp* most high schools now days even public ones, your kid will need the internet. I agree it's about the parent not the phone. Teenagers rebel this is common knowledge we all did it, but if you instill your values/morals/rules on your child from birth, instead of waiting until they're teenagers they should be fine.
Just when I thought Social Science couldn't get any stupider, along come this study. Any chance the kids are having more sex simply because they can? Just goes to show that you can prove anything with statistics.
You didn't read the article, did you? Tell us, did you access this article on your smartphone?
JR,
I agree, most of these "studies" are just so some guy can write a paper, and get his PhD. And all the eggheads with beards and leather patches on their elbows will try to look studious and nod their heads.
So...by that logic....kids are more prone to STDs....
Derp.
They DO have more STDs and they DO have more sex and sexting and exposure to sex on TV and the internet...things are changing...just like they did in Rome before the fall.
Rome didn't fall because of people having sex.
Part of Romes fall Taziar was the fall of Romes moral standards.
Rome fell due to slow lead poisoning. The first society with running water, they used lead pipe.
They were spread all over the world and trying to control a huge empire while most at home were going slowly insane. Huh? Maybe we are a lot like Rome before the fall. But yeah, it didn't have @!$%# to do with people having sex.
What a bunch of @!$%#ing prudes this country is becoming! Grow up there is nothing wrong with sex as long as you are not popping out babies left and right!
I think the government via the public education system could very well do something to fix the situation if we did not have a bunch of religious nut jobs and prudes pushing abstinence instead of education and birth control.
Wake up! Kids are people too. They will grow up and do all the same kinds of things you and I have done. There is nothing magical about childhood! It is just a phase of life. There is absolutely no reasonable reason that teens over say, 16 should not be able to go to the high school nurse and get free condoms.
Oh please, I was a teen in the 80's. During one of the highest times for teen pregnancies and AIDES was relatively new and considered a 'gay' disease. We didn't need phones or computers to have sex...
ANOTHER totally frivolous tax wasting 'study'.
Where does it say in the article that it was funded by tax dollars? I think there's a lot more problems here than just not knowing how to spell one of the most famous diseases in the world.
Angela -
Sadly, public funding of such research has diminished to nearly nothing, as our government prefers spending public funds on such things as totally frivolous tax wasting 'wars', researching new ways of killing our fellow human beings, and bailing out billion dollar banks. You can rest assured that research being done that my actually benefit you in raising your child was not funded by tax dollars.
What is AIDES?
Oh I misspelled a word, so what? If that's the only part of my post you're replying to, get a life loser. I'm pretty sure you're perfect...in your own mind...
sp3l1ing p0l1c3 @lw@y$ 3x1$t on th3s3 b0@rd$ Angela LD.
This belief that we can treat the teenagers in this country like they are one property and two have no control over what they do with their bodies is getting out of hand. Teen have sex, they have sex drives. All a parent can hope to do is raise them on their beliefs and educate them on the ramifications of such decisions. And no you can't just blame parents for raising the child wrong. Society as a whole in this country is to blame. Sex is sensationalized in the US today. Teens see this and wonder what it is all about. They can have all the surveys and studies they want I'm sure they could get this study to say teens on smartphones are lazy if they really wanted to. If the person conducting said study has a predetermined bias they are going to get it to say their belief irregardless of what the actual data says.
Kids, yes, kids... are going to have sex with or without a smart phone. Smart phones are just another tool to hookup for sex. Its convenient, fast, and easy to use.
Gezz... Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am... That was easy!
I'm glad someone is getting something out of their smartphone!
True. If all it took to have sex is a smartphone, every married man in this country would give their wife a smartphone for every day of the week. These same people that are saying that teens shouldn't have phones are the same people who leave their kids at home unsupervised all the time. If you really want too know why teens are having sex, it's called opportunity. Do you really know where your kids are 24/7? Without a phone, I highly doubt that. Being a part of your kids lives is the answer. Ask them questions. Know what they are doing and above all, trust them to do the right things. Let them know when you are disappointed in their decisions. You would be surprised how quickly they will come to value your opinions. Above all, treat them as a person rather than a possession.
"Teens who own a smartphone may be at increased risk for engaging in risky sex behavior, a new study suggests.”
This may, or may not be, the most ambivalent headline I have seen in hours, or maybe even years.
Here's the deal, sex happens – it is human nature. The sooner we get over our puritanical ideals that sex is a dirty, nasty, disgusting thing that should be saved for the one person you love more than anything (read that sentence again and think about it), the better off we will be. Our society bombards kids with sexual imagery in all media forms; it sells cars, soda pop, clothes, video games, and even candy. Yet we are shocked to the core when we find out our teens are having sex? Really?! It’s time to man up American, deal with the fact that we are sexual creatures and stop treating it like the nasty little secret we don’t think anyone knows about. Here’s a FYI, you didn’t invent sex, your parents didn’t invent sex, and your great great great great great great great grandparents didn’t invent sex… it’s part of our nature, period.
We need to take responsibility for our children and stop thinking that someone else is responsible. They are our kids. We brought them into this world; let’s take a few moments to have an open and honest discussion with them. It’s really not that hard.
I love the wording on the headline: "may be at increased risk". New studies:
"People with college education may be at increased risk for higher salaries"
"Children taught to swim may be at increased risk to not drown"
"Those who exercise may be at increased risk to lose weight"
OK, I thought about it.
If I thought sex was a dirty, nasty, disgusting thing, I wouldn't save it for the one person I love.
The fact that I follow the Savior and reserve it for the one person I have committed to for life, I think means I value and respect it more than those who engage in sex outside of marriage.
Desert Bill, you are so full of it.
I think means I value and respect it more than those who engage in sex outside of marriage.
So according to your holier than thou opinion, those who have premarital sex, or more than one sex partner don't respect it, or respect it less? Bull@!$%#. If two people TRULY love each other, and YES, you CAN have more than one person that you have loved, they are NOT going to let prudish, Puritan views, a wedding band, and a piece of paper stand in their way. As long as they both love and trust each other, and are committed to the relationship, they art NOT going to let those sort of backward views hinder their NORMAL and NATURAL urges.
The fact is that religion DOES portray sex and sexual urges/masturbation as something that is dirty, that is shameful, that is disgusting, something that is "wrong". THAT is the real problem.
Their attitudes toward it are as follows: "Let's condemn anyone who is not a virgin and unmarried. Let's shame people and instill guilt in them for having sex or masturbating. Let's teach them that it is wrong, and dirty, and that their bodies are gross and need to be hidden". And we wonder why we can't get past all the shame and guilt associated with sex. It is a FACT that religion shames sex, sexual urges, and any kind of curiosity or behavior. Why do you think Muslim women are forced to cover up from head to toe? Now, to be clear, I don't have anything against Muslims, I'm just making a point.
There are parents out there who scar their children for life over it, who actually punish their children for being curious, young children, and that is truly sad.
Sex/sexual urges/curiosity/masturbation is NOT shameful. It is NOT dirty. It is NOT something to feel guilty about.
It's these repressive attitudes and views toward sex that are abnormal. People who condemn sex are the abnormal ones who should be ashamed. THOSE are the ones who need to be educated and deprogrammed.
This is one of the big reasons I gave up on religion.
Any sane person, any healthy person who has healthy, normal, rational attitudes towards sex KNOWS that this type of Puritan, shameful, guilty mindset about sexuality is completely warped and backward. Any person with a healthy attitude towards sex will REJECT that kind of twisted mindset, and ACCEPT that sex is natural and normal, and ACCEPT that it does not matter if you're married or not, so long as you're in a trustworthy, loving, committed relationship.
In the 60's and 70's it was pot....now it's smart phones. lol! *rolling eyes*
This is good info to have, cause teen p(u)ssy is the best p(u)ssy...........
okay...that was pretty crass. You can crawl back in your rat hole now.
They should limit inmate access to computers.
A past report stated that dancing was the root cause of increased sexual activity in teens. I believe that report was released by the same group that proved that listening to Ozzy and Alice Cooper increased suicide rates. Why does this BS show up every 5-10 years? Tipper - is that you?
Wish they had smartphones when I was a teen!
Yeah Dude! All we had when I was a Kid were two Tin Cans and a Piece of String and we had to walk to School in Snow Storms!
If you have a child under the age of 16 or what ever age you feel appropriate maybe you should take his/her phone and give them yours for a day. Then their incoming calls come directly to you and that might give you information on what type of people are corresponding with them. I'd do it on a day they where not as school like a week end and I'd rethink giving them my phone also, I wouldn't want them calling and warning the unwanted callers.
Seems to me it would have the total opposite effect. Junior has Jane in the backseat of Dad's car and Jane is hot and bothered but instead of Junior getting a little stink finger he's to busy texting one of his buddies. Girl gets frigid and tells him to go screw his Smartphone.
I remember when my Boss handed out pagers. AT first everyone thought they were Hot and you looked really Cool and Important if you had one openly displayed! I thought, this can't lead to anything good. I ended up calling it an Electronic Dog Leash and more often then not, it accidentally on purpose fell into the toilet more then a few times. Communications technology has advanced in leaps and bounds. It can be a double edge sword and it may lead to more Sex if having the latest and Greatest Smartphone increases your allure to others. I guess If a Tricked Out Low-rider SUV makes one more attractive, why not a Hot Looking Smartphone?
But beware Teeny Boppers, your Parents and the law can track your every move now and those Little Cameras can be a Biotch too!
I blame all this on Madison Avenue!
Just file this article under "No @!$%#"
Madison Avenue tell s you what is important in life and what is not, the problem is, is that the Consumer falls for it most of the time...
I would like to conduct my own in-depth hands-on study on this important issue facing today's youth. I feel I could bring a unique perspective. How do I find these 18 and 19 year old (and depending on what State you're in, 16 and 17) year old girls?
Don't you mean BOYS. Joe? My GAYDAR is going completely nuts right now...I know a couple of guys if you ever get to Florida
So many confounding variables...
One of the stupidest studies yet. I bet another study will show teens that go outside have a greater chance at having sex than those that stay at home inside playing the violin too.
Great! Now, can I get a smart phone that will help me engage in more sex if I am not a teenager? Used to be the teenager that had a driver's license, and could use his/her parents' car had more chance of engaging in sex, bigger the back seat the better. Unfortunately, at this stage, my 20 year old Buick back seat leather has healed itself. I hope no taxpayer money is used in these "surveys". Why not, "The goal is the same, the method with which to reach it is more advanced"? ( A real "Smart Phone" would have an app that would tell you who is most likely to...........).
The claim is that the phones are smart. Nobody said the kids are.
So, need to be looking for Hispanic girls with smartphones. Got it.
Please call the Smithsonian if you find a teen girl without a smartphone.
ROFL