Going by the findings of a recent Associated Press-MTV survey, 'sexting' - using the cell phone or an online medium to share sexually explicit photos, videos and chat - is considered to be a fairly commonplace practice by almost one-third of the youths surveyed.

The young respondents of the poll explicitly confessed that they have been involved in some form of sexting or the other - either having e-mailed their own nude photo or video or having received such an image from others, especially their romantic interest.

Nearly 61 percent of the youth surveyed said that they engaged in sexting because of being pressurized by someone. Furthermore, the number of girls who shared a naked image of themselves surpassed the number of boys who did so; as did the number of sexually active youth vis-à-vis the not sexually active ones.

The poll also found that sexting is not considered a 'serious' issue by the youth, even though several young people across the US have faced charges, in some cases even felony charges, for distributing their nude pictures.

Commenting on the sexting-related findings of the poll, Kathleen Bogle, a sociology professor at Philadelphia's La Salle University, said: "Sometimes the youth think of it as a joke. In some cases, it's seen as flirtation. They're thinking of it as something far less serious and aren't thinking of it as consequences down the road or who can get hold of this information."