The Pew Internet Project says that kids who buy their own phones are four times as likely to sext – that is send inappropriate images or texts to other kids. The sad thing is that some of these images make it into some of the 3,000 reports received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children every week.

While I still think sexting, like rainbow parties, is an overblown phenomenon, the report, found here and embedded after the jump, polled 2,553 Millennials (18-29) and 800 adolescents between 12 and 17.

http://viewer.docstoc.com/
pew –

They found that 75% of teens have a cellphone while 15% of those teens received sexual images via cellphone of someone they knew. 4% of that group have sent images. 59% of teens in households earning less than $30,000 have cellphones while 75% in “wealthier” families own them.

There’s a bit more buried in the report such as the news that 9% of teens use Twitter (compared to 19% of adults) while 14% of them blog (down from 28% in 2006). They are also commenting less. Adults, on the other hand, are blogging more often than they did in 2006.

Take a gander at the full report online but it’s quite interesting – and quite jarring – to hear the stats on sexting.

[Thanks to Larry Magid for the news]