One out of three teenagers use their mobile phone to take pictures of them naked and share them with other people, a recent research shows. It seems that teenagers and 20 to 26 year-old adults use their cell phones to get attention or to flirt with other people.

The survey reports that about 40% of the adult men and women and 30% of teenagers say that they have seen nude pictures being sent to other people. Teenagers also make use of the new technology to send allusive messages, as 39% of the teens and 59% of 20-26 old adults have sent such messages.

The survey was conducted by Marissa Nightingale, representative of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy NGO, along with the website CosmoGirl.com. The research studied 1,280 teenagers and adults from 25^th September to 3^rd October. Recent studies show that 80% of teens aged 13 to 17 and 93% of 18-24 year-old adults use a cell phone. Therefore, the results of the survey are illustrative especially when you consider that almost all recent phone models are equipped with a camera.

The nude images are sent to so many people because, even though they are initially intended for a boyfriend or girlfriend, they are shared immediately after breakups. Speaking about the sharing of nude images, a student from Takoma Park, Md., stated that everybody has “seen this kind of thing. It's incredibly widespread."

This increasing phenomenon that implies technology never used by these teenager’s parents makes them “feel so overwhelmed and intimidated that they just don't want to deal with it,” according to Nightingale. Furthermore, there is an argument over whether teenagers sharing nude photos of their friends should be liable for child pornography and obscenity.