Sexting, Internet safety loom large as childhood health concerns

Cause for concern?: Sexting has vaulted to number six on the list of most pressing childhood health concerns this year, up from 13th place in 2014.

As more kids use mobile phones and surf the web at increasingly younger ages, sexting and Internet safety are becoming bigger childhood health concerns, edging out long-time worries like smoking and teen pregnancy, a new poll suggests. 

Internet safety rose to become the fourth most commonly identified major problem in the 2015 C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital national poll on children’s health, up from eighth the year before, with 51% of adults this year citing it as a top concern.