Researchers at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, concluded that teenagers who text over 120 times a day are more likely to have had sex or to have used drugs or alcohol than kids who don’t send as many messages.

Dr. Scott Frank, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve, studied teenagers who engaged in “hyper-texting” (sending more than 120 text messages per school day) and/or “hyper-networking” (spending more than three hours on social networking sites during a school day) in a Midwest, urban county in the United States.[audio:http://hospitalstay.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/02-Teenage-Lust.mp3|titles=Teenage Lust]Among the subjects categorized as hyper-texters:

• 40% were more likely to have tried smoking
• They were two times more likely to have tried alcohol
• 43% were more likely to binge-drink
• 41% were more likely to have used illicit drugs
• 55% were more likely to have been in a physical fight
• They were almost 3.5 times more likely to have had sex
• 90% were more likely to have had four or more sexual partners

Among the subjects defined as hyper-networkers:

• 62% were more likely to have smoked cigarettes
• 79% were more likely to have tried alcohol
• 69% were more likely to be binge drinkers
• 84% were more likely to have used illicit drugs
• 94% were more likely to have been in a physical fight
• 69% were more likely to have had sex
• 60% were more likely to have had four or more sexual partners.

The study also linked hyper-networking with an increased likelihood of stress, depression, suicide, sleep deprivation, and poor performance in school. According to Dr. Frank: “The startling results of this study suggest that when left unchecked, texting and other widely popular methods of staying connected can have dangerous health effects on teenagers. This should be a wake-up call for parents to not only help their children stay safe by not texting and driving, but by discouraging excessive use of the cell phone or social web sites in general.”

Additional Sources:  FoxNews.com; ABCNews.com