--- title: CDC Finds Teens Text and Drive at High Rates Despite Campaigns description: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found kids are still engaging in a range of risky behaviors, despite a reported drop in cigarette use. canonical: https://time.com/2869683/kids-texting-driving/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-13T12:19:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:15.295Z article:section: Health og:title: CDC Finds Teens Text and Drive at High Rates Despite Campaigns og:description: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found kids are still engaging in a range of risky behaviors, despite a reported drop in cigarette use. og:url: https://time.com/2869683/kids-texting-driving/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: CDC Finds Teens Text and Drive at High Rates Despite Campaigns twitter:description: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found kids are still engaging in a range of risky behaviors, despite a reported drop in cigarette use. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 4 in 10 Teens Admit Texting While Driving > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: New Mexico Tells Teens to Text Their Sex Questions [Watch (HLS stream): New Mexico Tells Teens to Text Their Sex Questions](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BwWdbxuE.m3u8) (1:12)  _Published 2013-09-20. The New Mexico Health Department is offering a new texting service for teens to answer their questions about sex_ by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 13, 2014 12:19 PM UTC by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 13, 2014 12:19 PM UTC Today’s teens are distracted behind the wheel, according to a new survey. Though they aren’t [smoking cigarettes in high rates](http://time.com/2864214/teen-smoking-is-way-down-but-what-about-e-cigs/), or regularly driving drunk, about 41% of America’s driving teens reported that they had texted or emailed while driving. This is in spite of the often horrifying [commercials](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl2xhfVUu0Y) and [campaigns](http://www.allstate.com/auto-insurance/teen-text-pledge.aspx) aimed at keeping teen drivers’ eyes on the road while behind the wheel. The findings, published in the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6304.pdf)’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey, are especially daunting given the fact that the bulk of teen deaths are the result of motor vehicle crashes. But texting and driving isn’t the only risky business teens are engaging in. Though teens aren’t watching as much TV as they were in 1999, more are using the computer for longer periods of time. About 41.3% said they’re using computers for more than 3 hours a day, up from 31.1% in 2011\. About 14.8% of students said they had been bullied online, compared to 19.8% who had been bullied at school. And sitting in front of screen does little to help the nearly [21% of adolescents](http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm) considered obese. Another risk that should have parents worried: sexually active teens are using condoms a bit less than they have in the past. About 47% of students said they had ever had sex, but of the 34% of teens that are sexually active, only about 59% are using condoms, down from 63% in 2003. The annual survey of a nationally representative sample of ninth through 12th graders in the U.S. examines the unhealthy behaviors teens have engaged in over the past 12 months to gage what leads to the unintentional injury, obesity, and unplanned pregnancy within the group. 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