Forty percent of American teenagers continue to text and email while driving, a new CDC report reveals.
Texting and driving, especially among teenagers has raised serious concerns over the last few years. Despite horrifying commercials and campaigns aimed at discouraging teenagers from engaging in distracting activities while driving, a large number of American teens continue to use their phones while behind the wheel.
According to the latest Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) report released by the CDC, more than 40 percent of Americans teens use their mobiles to text or email while driving..
Texting and driving is not the only teenage risky behavior that has caught the eyes of regulating bodies. The CDC also found that though there has been a significant decline in the amount of television teenagers watch, more are using the computer for longer periods of time. About 41.3 percent said they use computers for more than 3 hours a day, up from 31.1 percent in 2011. About 14.8 percent of students said they had been bullied online, compared to 19.8 percent who had been bullied at school. Not only does spending too much time in front of the computer affect the eyes, it is a major contributing factor to obesity and other health problems.
Though the number of teenagers having sex dropped to 47 percent, not many of them were practicing safe sex, another cause of worry. Among the 34 percent who admitted to an active sex life, only 49 percent said they used condoms, down from 63 percent in 2003.
The only silver lining in this report was that the number of teenage smokers saw a decline. The U.S. achieved a teen smoking rate of 15.7, meaning the country met its Healthy People 2020 objective of getting the adolescent cigarette use below 16 percent.
"It's encouraging that high school students are making better health choices such as not fighting, not smoking, and not having sex," CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., said in a news release. "Way too many young people still smoke and other areas such as texting while driving remain a challenge. Our youth are our future. We need to invest in programs that help them make healthy choices so they live long, healthy lives."
Researchers also found that the number of teenagers who had been in a minimum of one physical fight has decreased from 42 percent in 1991 to 25 percent in 2013.
