It was inevitable: Teens — and grownups I happen to know — using their cell phones for mutual titillation. USA Today yesterday ran a story that quantified the practice known as “sexting.”

About a third of young adults 20-26 and 20% of teens say they’ve sent or posted naked or semi-naked photos or videos of themselves, mostly to be “fun or flirtatious,” a survey finds.

A third of teen boys and 40% of young men say they’ve seen nude or semi-nude images sent to someone else; about a quarter of teen girls and young adult women have. And 39% of teens and 59% of those ages 20-26 say they’ve sent suggestive text messages.

When I was in high school, kids passed suggestive, handwritten notes. No pictures, of course, because noone wanted the folks at the PhotoMart to see them naked. Now, digital and cell phone technology has created a dangerous new kind of privacy: First, it enables kids, especially those without strong moral guidance, to unthinkingly violate themselves, revealing things they will later regret. Second, while teens can conceal their digital indiscretions from parents simply by pressing “delete,” they can’t control the future use of any sex-talk and/or images they send out.

High school senior Mayron Gezaw, 17, of Fairfax, Va., says a nude photo that she heard a girl sent her boyfriend showed up on her phone last year. “The whole class was sharing it by the end of the day. … The guys said, ‘She’s so hot.’ The girls were more like, ‘I feel sorry for the girl,’ or they just lost all respect” for her.

The truth is, guys, too, still lose respect for a girl like that. I hear my sons and their friends talking about it. As modern and high-tech as we think we are, sin still has its natural consequences — even among kids.