Twenty percent of Brits admit to not just sending texts and messages—but racy texts--to the totally wrong person in their contact list. A poll shows that nearly one in 10 of those Brits has been caught red-handed, in the act of "sexting" or sending sexual content.
The under-25 age group appears most guilty of carelessness with the spread of personal, sexually-based content: 43 percent in the age group say they’ve sent racy text messages--to the wrong cell phone contact. It’s not just men who prove most careless—the poll shows men and women being equally guilty of not paying attention to where that text message is actually headed.
"Text and picture messaging has now become so second nature that people are less cautious, leading to messages frequently going astray," says managing director of sellmymobile.com, the company backing the survey.
"A key aspect of text messaging is that it allows a more detached method of communication. This was part of its initial popularity and a likely explanation for the large number of people willing to send out explicit [sexual] content."
In a survey of 1,097 cellular or mobile phone users, maybe even more startling is complete lack of ensuring personal security, once the cell phone is out of arm’s reach and destined for another user. One in five survey respondents--a whopping 20%--admit to a failure in wiping the cell phone’s memory or drive clear of their own personal information before selling, giving away or recycling the mobile handsets—that recycled info includes personal contacts, sent and received messages, and even personal photos.