Disclaimer: Taking, sending, and insecurely storing nude photographs in your phone puts you at risk for hacking, cyberbullying, blackmail, revenge porn, and general unwanted exposure of these photos online. We do not condone the taking of nude photographs for anyone under the age of Modesty was drilled into my head by my mother from an early age. Growing up, the first part had been easy for me. I felt effortlessly confident in my skin Between our sappy summer goodbye and that chilly October weekend, cheap beers and greasy hangover sandwiches had added a few pounds to my body.

When nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities were stolen from Apple's iCloud and leaked online, the online privacy debate went viral. The incident also highlighted how popular the practice is: 54 percent of U. Sending racy texts, nude photos or explicit videos is most common among the age group, with 70 percent saying they've received such a message. Our desire to connect is primal, but our daily lives are often physically disconnected, said Dara Greenwood, an associate professor of psychology at Vassar who studies mass media's impact on our perceptions of ourselves. Combined with the capabilities of today's technology, the selfie seemed inevitable the naked selfie is an even more loaded phenomenon, she said. In some basic sense, we take selfies because we can. Life and love consultant Emily Straubel agrees, and says that sexting can be a positive method of expressing sexuality in relationships -- as long as a quick discussion of ground rules is established first.

Taking naked photos - either for sending privately, social media, or oneself, can be fun, sexy, liberating and radical act, writes Amy Gray. Hell, it actually happened on the tram just yesterday. There is such joy in taking naked photos. The absurdity of our bodies, contorted into pleasing positions. The beauty of acceptance and trust, as you share visible intimacies with another.

Whether you love them or you hate them, they're constantly flooding our social media feeds. University of New South Wales researcher Khandis Blake says the next time you see a woman adjusting her bikini provocatively with her phone at the ready, don't think of her as vacuous or a victim. The study revealed women tend to sexualise themselves in environments with greater economic inequality, rather than where they might be oppressed because of their gender. The researchers say the findings are consistent across different geographic locations, even after taking into account and controlling for other factors that could influence patterns, like population size, human development and internet access. They say income inequality increases competitiveness and status anxiety among people at all levels of the social hierarchy, making them sensitive to where they sit on the social ladder and wanting them to do better than others.