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.