Twenty percent of Britons have managed to send racy texts to the wrong person, and nearly one in 10 has been caught red-handed "sexting," according to a poll on Tuesday.

本周二公布的一项民调显示，20%的英国人曾将色情短信发给错误的联系人，近十分之一的人在发这种“黄段子”时被逮个正着。

Under-25s are the most careless, with 43 percent admitting to sending fruity texts to the wrong contact. Men and women were equally guilty.

"Text and picture messaging has now become so second nature（第二天性，老习惯） that people are less cautious, leading to messages frequently going astray（走入歧途，迷路） ," said Keir McConomy, Managing Director of SellMyMobile.com which commissioned the survey.

"A key aspect of text messaging is that it allows a more detached（分离的） method of communication. This was part of its initial popularity and a likely explanation for the large number of people willing to send out explicit¹（明确的，直率的） content."

The survey of 1,097 mobile phone users also revealed that one in five respondents fail to wipe their phones of personal content such as contacts, messages and pictures before selling, giving away or recycling their mobiles.