Sexting has become more popular -Report says

 

Sexting celebs aren't hard to come by these days. Even Demi Moore is comfortable taking sexy pictures of herself with a smartphone, like this one she posted to Twitter.

One night in January, a 36-year-old Manhattan mom flicked on the lights in her bathroom, posed seductively in a black lace bra and snapped a photo with her BlackBerry.

Seconds later, the image flashed on the cell phone of a man she had met a few weeks before at a friend's party.

"He sent me his things, so I showed him half - just a tease," said the serial sexter, who still lives with her estranged husband.

The pair flirted via Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger for several more weeks before their cybersex-capades peetered out. They never met again.

"I would do it over again in a heartbeat," the pretty brunette said.

Long considered a prurient teen phenomenon, sexting has gone mainstream.

Rihanna does it - so does Brett Favre, Anthony Weiner and millions of other adult Americans, experts say.

"Sexting is definitely integrated into our society," said Susan Lipkins, a Long Island-based psychologist who has studied the subject. "It's not just kids. It's a lot of adults as well."

As soon-to-be former Rep. Anthony Weiner painfully discovered, engaging in electronic exhibitionism carries enormous risks.

Erasing one's digital footprints entirely is exceedingly difficult, and there's no way to stop a paramour or scorned former flame from plastering a sexy photo online.

"Once it's in cyberspace, you don't own it anymore and you don't know what's going to happen to it," said Bonnie Jacobson, a clinical psychologist and author of "Save Your Marriage in Five Minutes a Day."

"The Internet has been very troublesome for marriages."

Despite its costs, sexting is rampant.

Roughly 33% of people aged 18 to 29 say they have been texted a nude or seminude photo of someone they know, a Pew Research Center poll found.

Among 30- to 49-year-olds, 17% reported having received such photos and 5% admitted to sending them.

"It often begins innocently - a person meets someone through a friend of a friend or on Facebook," Lipkins said. "They start emailing, and that turns into texting that turns into sexting."

That's exactly how one 21-year-old Brooklyn man's high-speed hanky-panky starts.

The man said he often sends sweet messages to random girls through Twitter or Facebook.

After some innocent exchanges, he often heats things up by asking for revealing pics - but that's not always necessary.

"If the girl is freaky, she'll send you naked pictures without you even asking," said the man, who uses the handle Derrick Swerve when exchanging photos with women.

A Long Island woman named Elizabeth said she has received a stream of nude shots from suitors she barely knew.

"Guys think it's cute," she said. "It's not."

"People just spread things so easily. You don't know who you can trust or not. I wouldn't even send anything to my boyfriend."