About a third of text-messaging teens in the U.S. admit to texting behind the wheel, even though some said they thought it could hinder their ability to drive, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.

Teens aged 16 and 17 reported a variety of motivations for texting while driving, including the need to report their whereabouts to friends and parents, getting directions and flirting with significant others.

Teens also described a variety of texting practices they believed would increase safety while they continued to drive. Some teens thought that merely reading texts while driving was more acceptable than actively texting, the study found. Some of the teens surveyed said their parents also texted while driving.

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Texting while driving has become so widespread that Oxford University Press considered "intexticated" - distracted because texting on a cellphone while driving a vehicle - for its Word of the Year honour for 2009.

Do you think teens copy adult behaviours? Should there be harsher penalties for drivers caught texting? Is there a difference between reading a text and texting while driving?