Being a teenager means doing pretty dumb stuff. Some of us get our license revoked or throw a party at our parents’ house. Some of us get fired from our job or expelled from school. And some of us send nude pictures of ourselves to strangers on the Internet.

Wait, WTF?

Well, to be fair, “some of us” means about 1 in 5 teens (13-19) and young adults (20-26), according to a recent survey conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl. The survey’s results say that 21 percent of teen girls and 18 percent of teen boys have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves online.

LOL, right?

My initial reaction to this information was to ROFL, but as I read more of the study, my amusement slowly turned to the sort of creeping heebie-jeebies that only the Internet can provide.

First, I had to fight back the horrific idea that perhaps my 14-year-old cousin is part of that statistic – and then I read that 23 percent of the teens who have sent or posted “sexypix” said they sent them to people they knew only online.

OMG NO WAI!

Now, it’s creepy enough to think of an eighth-grader sending revealing pictures of his or herself to their significant other, but to a complete stranger? In other words, to an anonymous face behind a computer screen that could very well be “To Catch a Predator”‘s next victim?

That is far beyond the realms of LOL, ROFL, or even OMGWTF – that’s just flat-out disturbing.

It’s not the hints of sexuality that I find frightening, nor do I think teen pregnancy is the biggest threat here. What gives me the shivers is the fact that these statistics were undeniably born out of our breast-loving, body worshipping, all-consuming American media culture, and no one’s giving that fact the time of day.

Those who created the survey offer advice on how to protect yourself online; countless websites tout the importance of Internet safety for teens. None of these organizations, however, take a look at what these activities stem from.

Until there’s a change in our media, until sex stops being equated with wealth, happiness, and every other aspect of consumerism, until women are not force-fed images of feminine “perfection” from the minute they exit the womb, teenagers will continue attempting to imitate the culture that teaches them these ideals. No amount of surveys or precautionary tales will change the younger generation without the help of the forces that shape them.

Before The National Campaign and similar organizations jump to chastising teens for the Internet behavior, they should take a step back and consider the real situation that caused it. Underlying all the BRBs and G2Gs is a cultural problem in need of a major overhaul – and it’s time someone addressed that without any JKing around.