Research FAU study finds teen ‘sexting’ surge, warns of sextortion and privacy risks

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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1116255

INTRO: A new national study finds a concerning surge in teen “sexting,” which frequently exposes them to serious risks, including sextortion, coercion and privacy violations. Sexting involves sending or receiving sexually suggestive images or video, while sextortion is the threat to share explicit or intimate images without consent to pressure someone into providing more images, sexual favors, money or other demands. Sextortion is especially harmful for teens, who are still developing impulse control, risk assessment and emotional regulation.

Using a national sample of 3,466 adolescents aged 13 to 17 years in the United States, researchers from Florida Atlantic University and the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire, explored the prevalence of sexting behaviors, related negative outcomes, and differences across age, race, gender and sexual orientation.

Results of the study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, show that nearly 1 in 3 youth (32.4%) reported having received a sext, and almost 1 in 4 (23.9%) said they had sent one. These numbers represent a marked increase from what the researchers found in their 2019 study using the same methodology, where 23% had received and 14% had sent a sext.

“Sexting has become normalized in some peer groups, a trend amplified by increased reliance on digital communication during and after COVID-19,” said Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D., co-author, a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice within FAU’s College of Social Work and Criminal Justice, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, and a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. “The rise of AI tools also makes it easier to create realistic sexual content without actual sexting, which can be used in sextortion schemes.”

Whom youth sexted mattered immensely. Compared to those who only sexted with a current boyfriend or girlfriend, youth who sent sexts to someone outside a current relationship were:

• more than 13 times as likely to have their image shared without consent, and
  
• nearly five times as likely to experience sextortion, even after accounting for gender, sexual orientation, race and age.

Boys were significantly more likely than girls to both send and receive sexts, and non-heterosexual youth reported higher participation than heterosexual youth. White and multiracial youth had the highest rates overall. While older teens were generally more likely to sext, the pattern was not linear: 15 and even 13 year olds reported high levels of involvement.

Requests for sexts were even more common than sending... (MORE - details, no ads)