AS many as 20 percent of American teenagers now do it: send nude or partly nude photos of themselves via text message.

It’s sleazy, to be sure. But what many people might not know is that it can also be illegal. When the photos are of underage individuals, it technically represents distribution of child pornography, and some teens are being prosecuted for it.

What started out as seemingly “harmless” fun could brand them as convicted felons and registered sex offenders — for life.

Obviously, state legislators have some work to do separating unwitting 14-year-old sexters from laws designed to catch pedophiles and predators.

The rest of us have a lot of work to do understanding why sexting has become so common among our kids.

Sexting has led to arrests. It has also led to harassment cases when girls’ photos are more widely distributed than they intended. It’s even led to suicide — when one girl’s regrets over exposing herself turned toxic.

Sexting reveals a lot about American teenagers. For one, it tells us that they are relying on their naked bodies to connect with one another, rather than forging connections around their common interests and aspirations.

In this case, technology isn’t tapping their deeper thoughts or reflections or angst. It’s transmitting their raw sexuality. It tells us gender roles are breaking down again.

Girls are less reticent than ever — perhaps no more reticent than boys — about being overtly sexual.

For better or worse, equality of the sexes has moved young America toward something stereotypically male: sex as soon as possible, unencumbered by commitment, fueled primarily by visual stimulation. We’ve lost the “feminine” resistor in the circuit of our sexuality.

And now it’s becoming a runaway circuit. Sexting is also a clear window into the way technology can dehumanize people, cleaving them from their better intentions.

Teenagers wouldn’t consider getting naked in class or handing out nude snapshots of themselves, but they’ll send naked photos of themselves via text messages.

That’s because the process of using a camera phone and text messaging makes them feel more like reality TV stars or TV producers than anything else.

Several young people have told me that sexting doesn’t feel “real,” maybe because the actual mechanism by which images are conveyed is nearly incomprehensible to them.

None of these kids are “delivering” photos anywhere; instead, they’re magically sending them, just like the made-up teen witches who populate Disney dramas on television.

Keith Ablow, MD, is a psy chiatrist, Fox News Channel contributor and founder of livingthetruth.com. Contact him at info@keithablow.com.