They may not be thinking:
There's a special part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (aka the CEO of the brain) that is responsible for problem solving, impulse control, and weighing out options. Unfortunately for teens, this area of the brain is not fully developed. In fact, it doesn't fully mature until the early to mid-twenties. So, while we expect our teens to know better, the fact is there are some physiological reasons teens think they're invincible.
Now after defining the reasons of Sexting, we just want to state that it's a responsibility of all parents to take measures in order to prevent their kids from this as Sexting can has large number of negative impacts. It can affect a person emotionally, socially and legally too.
For the person that receives and spreads the images, there are a number of legal ramifications. Because the images are of minors, the spreading of nude or partially nude photos may violate child pornography laws. As a result a person can be found guilty of distributing child pornography and may even have to register as a sex offender.
