If you’ve never sent a text message including some sort of explicit content, then you are in the minority. As mobile technology evolves so does the way we send pornography messages. A team of researchers has blamed this surge in sexually explicit texts, or sexts as they’re commonly known as, not on human nature but on the media. According to their finding there is a strong correlation between teens who watch a lot of music videos and high levels of sexting.

Researchers from the University of Antwerp surveyed 329 students aged between the ages of 15 and 18 at schools in Flanders, Belgium. The Daily Mail reported that the students were asked questions pertaining to how often they used the Internet, watched music videos, and viewed online porn. They were also asked how often they sexted others, had been asked to send a sext, or had been sent either a sexual image or video from another person.

“The results of our study show that various types of sexting behavior are significantly linked with both pornography and music video consumption,’ said lead researcher Joris Van Ouytsel, as reported by The Daily Mail.

According to the student’s answers, this link between watching porn and sending sexual messages was found in both boys and girls.

It seems that viewing music videos online may induce interesting behavior in teens. The researchers found that students who viewed music videos online were more likely to ask others to send them sexually explicit images. This link was seen strongest among the boys who had partook in the study. Also it seemed that the students who received sexting were more likely to watch more online music videos.

This pattern was seen stronger amongst the boys who had partaken in the study than the girl participants.

“The results demonstrate that sexting behaviors were significantly associated with the consumption of pornography, when controlling for age, gender, and internet use,” Van Ouytsel explained. “Music video consumption was only significantly associated with asking someone for a sexting message and having received a sexting message.”

Although the prominence of sexting may not sound particularly worrying, it is when the sext is either sent or received by a minor. It’s here were the situation can go from embarrassing to illegal. A 2012 study on teen sexting behaviors concluded that teen-focused health care providers should consider screening for sexting behaviors in to provide the best age-specific education on the potential consequences.

Source: Van Ouystel J, Ponnet K, Walrave M. The Associations Between Adolescents' Consumption of Pornography and Music Videos and Their Sexting Behavior. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.2014