According to a new survey, almost one-third of youths admit they’ve engaged in sexting-related activities that involved either e-mailing a photo or video of themselves in the nude or being the recipient of such images. Of those who admitted to distributing suggestive images of themselves, about 61 percent report that they were pressured by someone to send the image. Girls were more likely to share a naked image of themselves than boys. Those who are already sexually active were much more likely to send an image than those who were not sexually active. Most of the respondents sent the image to a significant other or a person of romantic interest to them. But 29 percent said they shared naked images of themselves with someone they knew only online.

To help measure where the younger generation currently stands on sexting and digital abuse, 1,247 youths between ages 14 and 24 were surveyed. About 50 percent of youths who responded to the survey said they’ve been the victim of some form of digital abuse. The most common type of abuse was being the target of a smear campaign; about 22 percent of respondents indicated they’d been the target of lies spread through digital media. About 8 percent of respondents indicated they’d been threatened with some form of digital blackmail. Females were targeted for digital abuse more often than males — with 53 percent of them acknowledging it, as opposed to 42 percent of males.

These are some of the findings of a survey conducted by MTV and the Associated Press as part of a new multi-year campaign the youth-oriented television network launched on Thursday with numerous partners. The aim of the campaign, dubbed “A Thin Line,” is to educate teens and college-age students about safe and appropriate digital behavior. The campaign will include a half-hour MTV news special to be broadcast next Valentine’s Day that will focus on sexting as well as a series of public service announcements addressing sexting, harassment, digital prejudice and other topics. In addition, the network’s documentary series True Life will do an episode on the issues that two young couples have faced through their digital activities. And so on… [via Oscar]

Not that we didn’t know already…