Teens texting 120 messages a day ‘likelier to indulge in sex, drugs, booze’

LONDON - A research has found that teenagers who send more than 120 text messages a day are more likely to indulge in sex, drugs and alcohol.

Excessive texting among teens - dubbed ‘hyper-texting’ and defined as sending more than 120 messages per school day - is linked to a higher occurrence of smoking, drinking, fighting and sexual relationships.

Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio found that compared to non-heavy texters, hyper-texting teens were 40 per cent more likely to have tried cigarettes and 94 per cent more likely to have been in a fight, the research showed.

While researchers say they aren’t suggesting that ‘hyper-texting’ leads to sex, drinking or drugs, the study concludes that a significant number of teens are very susceptible to peer pressure and also have permissive or absent parents, said Dr Scott Frank, the study’s lead author.

“If parents are monitoring their kids’ texting and soial networking, they’re probably monitoring other activities as well,” the Daily Mail quoted Frank as saying.

The study found those who text at least 120 times a day are nearly three-and-a-half times more likely to have had sex than their peers who don’t text that much.

Frank presented the study at a meeting of the American Public Health Association in Denver.(ANI)