National study: Youth ‘sexting’ is downplayed

A national study released Monday suggests there is a smaller percentage of young people involved in “sexting” — sending or receiving explicit or sexually suggestive images via cell phone or Internet — than previous studies found.

via National study: Youth ‘sexting’ is downplayed – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Wait a minute… who or what is doing the downplaying? Does the new study downplay the problem, or does the new study say that the problem has been downplayed in the past? From the article itself, it’s clear, but the headline is misleading.

Later in the story, there’s a line that say “results track with other findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that show downward trends in teen pregnancy, the number of sex partners for young people and the age at which they become sexually active,” but a “downward trend” in the last figure would mean kids are becoming sexually active earlier.