In case you haven't seen the Campaign's newest publication, I highly recommend it. And not just because I work here.

As someone who is admittedly ALWAYS attached to some form of media, the format for these helpful tips really strikes a chord with me. While I generally make my contribution to the Campaign's work by keeping my nose buried in some piece of legislation (light reading, anyone?) this got me thinking about the work that my colleagues on the other side of the office do to figure out all the ways we can reach folks through digital media.

These types of projects are becoming increasingly popular with our partners who work on teen pregnancy prevention. The Birds and Bees Text Line, which is sponsored by the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina and has garnered national media attention, and the text messaging contest that FutureNet in Iowa held earlier this year are just a couple examples.

Are your organizations, states, or communities doing innovative work to connect with those of us who are tethered to our handheld devices? How are you using digital media to advance pregnancy planning and prevention? Are you sending text message reminders for people to take their pill? Texting appointment reminders? Let us know what you're doing!

Ps--if you're interested in learning more about how social media and mobile technology can be used to prevent teen pregnancy, check out our new youtube playlist of highlights from our June 26th conference "Taming the Media Monster: Teens and Sex in the Digital Age."

"hey whats up?"
"nothing what are you doing?"
"dont know, want to hang?"
"yeah come over"

A series of innocent text messages or a new system of courtship? From teens 'sexting' to twenty-somethings dating via Blackberry Messenger, the cell phone age has ushered in a new system of courtship that makes all-night phone conversations seem archaic and written love letters resemble ancient artifacts. Why bother calling the object of your desire when you can simply send a "what's up" in a text message? Who would take the time to actually get together with a potential love interest when BBM-ing allows the users to message in real-time speed? It's like real conversation, right?

Wrong. Not to mention, with new technology comes new etiquette. Capitalization, word choice, time in between messages; even abbreviations must be treated with the proper manners. Time matters. Late night texts may be construed as booty calls. Number of texts sent in a row matters. Two consecutive text messages: okay, if you have a good amount of information to convey. Three consecutive text messages: you might as well write 'needy' on your forehead.

Then there are the actual texts themselves. I'm the first to admit that I have spent hours analyzing every character in a 35-character text. Was the typo intentional? What does he mean by 'hang out'? Is 10pm considered late-night or did he just get off of work? How long do I need to wait to text him back? If my response is longer than the maximum allotted characters in a text can I send him two, or--gasp--hit the send button and just tell him with words in a phone call? A piece of technology invented to make correspondence easier and mobile has only complicated our relationships and caused a great deal of stress in an already stressful environment.

Want to hear the rules from a more scholarly source (as if one even exists...)? Check out this article from FoxNews.com's FOXSexpert.

Lauren Mann is an intern in the National Campaign's Entertainment Media and Audience Strategy department. She is a junior at George Washington University, majoring in Communications and Journalism.

Back in December, The National Campaign and CosmoGirl.com released the results from a survey on the cultural phenomenon that has come to be described as...gulp...sexting.

Friends, we continue to be surprised by—and dine out on—the continued and overwhelming response the survey has received. The anecdotal reports we have all heard about teens and young adults electronically sending and posting nude images/videos of themselves—anecdotal reports that now have some quantitative data to back them up—have become the "our culture is dying" lament dejour.

Check out this clever campaign on "safe texting" that starts today in Milwaukee.  The bus shelter ads are funded by United Way of Greater Milwaukee, who, as we've noted before, are spearheading efforts to bring down the teen pregnancy and birth rates in their community. 

Today The Campaign, along with our friends at Cosmogirl.com, released a survey about the scary intersection of sex and technology. As it turns out, nearly 40% of teens are sending sexually suggestive text message, IMs, or emails. And nearly half have received them. Think that's bad? They're also sending sexually explicit photos and video—about 1 in 5 teens say they've posted or sent nude or semi-nude images of themselves. Most send this stuff to their boyfriends and girlfriends but 15% of those who've done it say they've sent such content to people they know only online. Yikes!

There's a lot to talk about here. Teens know it's dangerous and they do it anyway. This sort of activity increases with age (so much for "youthful indiscretions" that are over by adulthood). Teen girls say they do it because they think its "fun" but many guys see it as being "hot" and nearly a third of teen boys say girls who send such content are expected to hook up. Guys show what they're receiving to their buddies. And nearly a quarter of teens say this sort technology makes them more forward and aggressive in real life.

Real life. That's the scariest part of all. If someone has already seen photos of your naked body either online or on their cell phone screen, then the expectation for sexual contact may be more intense when you spend time with them in person. Or it might be harder to say "no" to something in real life if you've pushed the envelope electronically. Not to mention the real life impact these photos may have when potential employers or college admissions officers or new friends or first dates or sworn enemies or pretty much anyone else searches for information about you online.

And for the most part parents have no idea what's going on. When parents were growing up their moms answered the phone and knew their friends' voices. Phone conversations took place in the kitchen in front of everyone. Even if they took racy pictures of themselves as teens the only way to share them was passing around snapshots and then hiding them away. "Friends" were people you knew and spent time with—not a classification on Facebook that applies equally to people you've never met as well as lifelong pals. Parents may (or may not) be old-fashioned or out of touch when it comes to teens' attitudes about sex, drugs, drinking, etc., but at least they've lived through it. Not so with cell phone culture and social networking. Which can make it harder to talk about and easier to get away with.

For survey results, teen reaction, news coverage, tips for parents, things to think about before you press 'send' and more check out Sex and Tech: What's Really Going On on our site and Cosmogirl.com's The Daily Kiss blog.

An important new study from the Rand Corporation is the first to directly link sexual content on TV to the likelihood of teens getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy. Primary finding from the study published in the journal Pediatrics? Teens who are drowning in sex-saturated TV are twice as likely as their peers who watch little sexy stuff on TV to get pregnant or cause a pregnancy by age 16.  So, will turning off the TV prevent teen pregnancy?  A few modest thoughts to consider and discuss:

• Research once again has caught up with common sense.  Of course TV helps shape the social script for teenagers.  We take it as a given, for example, that Hollywood fashion influences what people outside of Hollywood wear, why would it be any different when it comes to teen sexual behavior?
• Don't assume TV is the whole story.  The RAND study and others have noted that sexual content on TV has grown over the past 10-15 years. If the influence of TV on teen sexual behavior is so profound and so direct, why might it be that teen sexual behavior has become more responsible over the past 10-15 years, the same time period that sexual content on TV has gotten raunchier and more prevalent?  Put another way, teen sexual activity, pregnancy, and birth rates have all declined dramatically during the Lohan, Spears administration.
• Media influence versus other influences.  Ponder this...the influence of media probably grows as other important influences in a teens' life wanes. On the job parents, for example, can do much to help teens interpret what teens see, read, and hear.
• Turn that crap off is not an effective parenting strategy.  The National Campaign has long encouraged parents to use what is on television---both good and bad---as a conversation-starter.  Parents should...gasp...sit down with their teens, watch shows that their children want to watch, and discuss what they have seen.  "Do you think that was a responsible decision Dick?"  Do you think she was really ready to have sex Jane?"  "Is that what a respectful relationship looks like Sue?"  "Why didn't that character discuss contraception Tom?"
• Show us more consequences.  National Campaign public opinion polls make clear that teens (76%) and adults (72%) want the media to focus more on the consequences of sex.
• TV isn't the only influence.  For those alarmed by the findings of this report, here is  something else to fret about.  The RAND report only studied the influence of TV, not other mediums that teens consume in vast quantities...think text messaging, social networks, music, etc.