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Mobile & Wireless

Hi... um, did we have text last night?

SMS in haste, repent in leisure...

By Graham Hayday

Published: 17 December 2001 15:30 GMT

Nearly 60 per cent of Britain's mobile phone users have sent rude or inappropriate text messages while under the influence of alcohol.

Women are by far the worst culprits when it comes to 'drink texting', with a high proportion admitting to sending rude or confidential messages to the wrong person. They also have a nasty habit of texting their ex-boyfriends when drunk.

Research conducted by mobile services outfit Zed found that over a third of mobile users have woken up after a night on the sauce to find a strange number stored in their phone's memory - the owners of which weren't filed quite so efficiently in their own memory.

While the majority deleted the number, a cheeky 25 per cent (mostly male) texted the number to see what the other person was like. Sixty-seven per cent received a response from the stranger.

Richard Hancock, UK country manager for Zed, said: "We were surprised to find that while women behaved badly with their mobile phones when drunk, men were far more cheeky once they'd sobered up."

Twenty-five per cent of the respondents have had to apologise to friends, partners and colleagues for sending hasty, drunken messages.

The survey polled adults in the 18-35 age bracket.

Got any embarrassing text message stories? Then why not share them with the world. Have a look at our special 'Digital Blunders' site at http://www.silicon.com/digitalblunders and then drop us a mail at editorial@silicon.com.

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