Mobile Access and Sexting Prevalence in High School Students in Rafsanjan City, Iran in 2015

Objectives Advances in the electronic communication technologies, despite a lot of benefits, have exposed the youth to some threats such as sexting. This study aimed to determine the youth access to mobile phone and the prevalence of sexting in high school students in Rafsanjan City, Iran.
Methods The study was a cross-sectional local survey of 944 high school students in Rafsanjan using stratified cluster sampling method. The survey tool was a questionnaire of texting and sexting quantity and quality. The obtained data entered the SPSS V. 16 and analyzed using Chi square and t-test.
Results Out of 994 samples, 10.9% did not access to mobile phone. About 62.7% of samples had smart phones and internet access via mobile phones. In last six months, 34.7% of samples had sent sext and 15.7% had received sext. There was a statistical significant relationship between sending (P<0.0001) and receiving sext (P<0.0001) and the total number of texting per day.
Conclusion Iranian youths have a wide access to mobile phones and sexting is prevalent among them. Such situation would expose them to threats and dangers in sexual interactions and calls for parents’ supervision and plan for parenting education.