Inside the Minds of Teens Who Post Sexual Images of Themselves

"This is primarily because of the Internet porn that has become incredibly available to everybody, including very young children," she said. "Today, an 8-year-old can stumble onto a site in which two or three men are doing everything imaginable to one woman."

"Everybody feels that the most important thing is to get your 15 minutes of fame and to go to any lengths to achieve it. So sending pictures around like that is a way of getting a whole lot of attention and recognition even though it's going to be devastating and short-lived."

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There's no doubting their interest. A study released last year by the University of Alberta found as many as 90 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls between the ages of 13 and 14 have accessed sexually explicit material at least once.

A prime example of the mainstreaming of pornography, said Kilbourne, is the widespread popularity of thong underwear, a garment that originated in the world of strippers and porn and made its way into major apparel retail shops across America.

Add that to a world where many young people long to become overnight Internet sensations and incidents like the one in Ohio are inevitable, said Carmine Sarracino, co-author of "The Porning of America."

"It's simply an emulation. The more important point is that they get porn whether or not they go looking for it because the whole culture is shaped by porn. They get porn through the mainstream culture," Sarracino said, citing Abercrombie & Fitch ads with half-naked men and women, as well as a Carl's Jr. hamburger commercial, where Paris Hilton appeared to mimic oral sex with a burger.

"It's a symptom of a much larger phenomenon that's happening."