Racy text-messaging is simply a part of college life, a study suggests: Some 78% of 200 students in a University of Rhode Island survey say they’ve received sexts, and 56% have gotten sexts containing pictures, Time reports. Most of these messages, it should be noted—about 73%—weren’t just random: they were sent to a romantic partner. However, a fifth of sext recipients went right ahead and forwarded the message to someone else, and 10% of sexts were passed on without the original sender’s approval.
So why the heavy sexting? “At the age of most college students, people are filtering through relationships at a faster rate,” says a study author. “People want to feel a sense of belonging so they are sharing more of themselves with people they are still getting to know.” It’s worth noting, though, that the sample size of 200 is small and represents just one university. But there's a serious side, Time notes: Some students are 17, and they live in a state where it recently became illegal for minors to sext. (More sexting stories.)
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