New research suggests that in teenagers, sexting isn’t necessarily an indicator of risky sexual behavior, like having multiple partners, using drugs or alcohol before a sexual encounter, or failing to use protection against an unwanted pregnancy. Instead, researchers conducting a longitudinal study of an ethnically diverse group of adolescent students from Southeast Texas suggest that sexting (which they define narrowly as sending a nude image of oneself by text) is both a common and a normal part of adolescent sexual development. “‘I’ll show you mine, you show me yours’ has been around for a long time,” said Jeff Temple, an associate professor and psychologist at UTMB and one of the authors of the study, which will be published in the journal Pediatrics. “It’s the medium that makes it different and scary. The actual act of sharing pictures isn’t anything abnormal. It’s part of how we develop sexually.” The news also appears in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and U.S. News & World Report, and several other outlets around the world.