Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research

Anderson Analytics does a lot of work with Generation Y. We’ve been tracking Gen Y both through survey research as well as via actual behavior on sites like Facebook.

Today I came across a study conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com which confirms some of the things we’ve been seeing in our work as well. The report looks at the intersection between sex and cyberspace and found that:

• 20% of teens and 33% of young adults are sending or posting nude/semi-nude images of themselves on the internet.
• 39% of teens and 59% of young adults are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages.

Who are they sending them to?

• About 70% have sent sexually suggestive content to a boy/girlfriend
• 21% of teen girls and 39% of teen boys have sent such content to someone they have wanted to date/hook up with

The report goes into more detail on various online behavior, you can check it out here.

Depending on what you consider sexually suggestive I think these numbers are quite conservative. As a result, in the not too distant future I think the way we as a society define sexually suggestive material may be very different…

A few TNC Interviews With Teens/Young Adults on the subject:

Mayron, 17, shares a “horror story” from her community and gives her perspective on what happened.

Lorena, 18, says teens don’t think about the real consequences of sending sexual content and that — like sex — most teens do it in the “heat of the moment.”

Matt, 17, says that his cell phone is his “personal space” and that he doesn’t want his parents spying on him without a really good reason.

Mayron, 17, explains why she thinks it is very common for teens to share private messages with their freinds.

Somalia, 16, belives that many teens send sexual messages and images to get noticed or to be flirtacious.