New York, Oct 9 (IANS): With the spurt in technology, more and more teenagers are sending naked selfies and the trend is only getting bigger and disturbing for parents and teachers alike, a new survey says.

Researchers from the University of Utah confirmed that substantial numbers of teenagers are sexting - sending and receiving explicit sexual images via smartphones.

"The results are nearly identical to the findings from our 2013 study of high school students. We believe the consistency reflects a valid estimate of the prevalence of teenage sexting - and the numbers are considerable," informed Don Strassberg, professor of psychology at the University of Utah.

The team surveyed 1,130 undergraduate students about their experiences about sexting during high school years.

Nearly 20 percent reported they had sent a nude photo of themselves to another via cell phone and 38 percent had received such a picture.

Of the number who had received a sext, nearly one in five had forwarded the picture to someone else.

Equal numbers of men and women reported that they had sent a sext but significantly, more men than women said they had received a sext - 47.1 percent of males versus 32.1 percent of females.

Men were significantly more likely to have forwarded the picture than women - 24.2 percent versus 13 percent.

These differences are consistent with findings that men have more positive attitudes toward casual sex than women, he pointed out.

The research, published online in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, was conducted at the University of Utah over a three-year period.