Other than the fact that sexual expression is deeply routed in the human psyche…

Get this nugget of knowledge: A recent study has found that teenagers engage in the not-so-subtle art of “sexting” in order to find out if they can trust one another.

The Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Festival of Social Science recently dedicated a study to the topic – The Telegraph elaborates:

When youngsters share explicit images, they do so as a way of finding out whether their partner is capable of keeping a secret.

Hmmm, really?

Camilla Giambonini from Essex’s department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies said there’s a “moral panic” about sexting, before adding that:

“[I]t’s impossible to stop young people from sharing their intimate images.”

She believes that it’s important to understand why teenagers send them in the first place so that we can better educate our youngsters about the dangers involved, so she interviewed a bunch of 16-year-old girls and boys for some insight.

The result? Well:

What became apparent is that what they described to me is that very often sexting happens among young teenagers, it is very much linked with attempts with finding out if you can trust someone else or not, more so than flirting or arousing sexual interaction.

By sharing an image you can find out whether they are capable of keeping a secret.

Still not convinced. What about all the times one of these pics have been leaked?

[W]hen teenagers share explicit images that have been sent to them, it is often as a form of revenge to the sender for a perceived betrayal.

Teenagers seem to struggle to deal with negative emotions and take revenge by sharing the images and exposing others. This is something that is often overlooked by interventions.”

Figures show that of the 4 000 children the police have dealt with for sexting since 2013, most of them are as young as 13 and 14.

Not cool.

Seems like they trust one another quite a bit already?

[source:thetelegraph]