[Sexting as a risk? : On consensual and non-consensual distribution of personal erotic pictures using digital media]

Image-Based Sexual Abuse Perpetration: A Scoping Review

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the nonconsensual creating, taking, or sharing of intimate images, including threatening to share images. It can also include coercing someone into sharing intimate images, or sending unwanted intimate images. In recent years, there has been growing attention to the nature, scope, and impacts of IBSA, but comparatively little attention has been paid to the perpetration of these harms. This scoping review consolidates and synthesizes the existing knowledge on the perpetration of IBSA against adults. The review involved a systematic search of scholarly and gray literature across select databases. In total, 26 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies were included if they were published in English between 2013 and 2023 and reported on findings of a sample of adults over the age of 16 who admitted IBSA perpetration behaviors. The review found that prevalence of subtypes of IBSA varied significantly across the studies. There was consensus that adults who engage in IBSA perpetration are more likely to be men, younger adults, and LGBTIQ+. Motivations were multifaceted, but tended to relate to social rewards, power dynamics, sexual gratification, and retaliatory impulses. Dark Tetrad traits were found to be positively associated with IBSA perpetration. The research also indicates on overlap between victimization and perpetration, as well as an association with other offending behaviors, such as intimate partner violence. Prevention interventions should be focused on changing the opportunities, affordances, and infrastructures for offending, as well as addressing problematic societal attitudes and norms, with early interventions focused on building resilience and self-esteem, and promoting healthy behaviors and respectful relationships.

Nonconsensual Sexting: Are the Moral Processes the Same If Boys or Girls Appear in the Forwarded Content?

Sexting is a form of intimate communication available in today's digital society consisting of exchanging erotic-sexual content online. However, doing it without the consent of the person appearing in the content is becoming a normalized form of cyberviolence among adolescents. To advance our understanding of this phenomenon, further research is needed on its facilitating factors, which may include those related to its potential moral dimension and online disinhibition. This study aims to analyze, according to gender and age, the relationship between nonconsensual forwarding of erotic-sexual content, differentiating between the type of content and the gender of the person appearing in it, moral disengagement, and toxic online disinhibition. A total of 1,611 adolescents (47.9 percent girls) aged 12-15 years (M = 13.4; SD = 1.0) participated in the study. Moral disengagement and toxic disinhibition have been shown to facilitate nonconsensual forwarding of erotic-sexual content, but their relevance varies depending on the type of content, and whether girls or boys appear in it. Facilitating factors for nonconsensual forwarding of content featuring boys include age, the diffusion of the consequences, and toxic online disinhibition. For girls, identifying with the male gender and cognitive restructuring were the main facilitators. These findings represent an original advance in the field of study by discriminating between the type of content forwarded and the gender of the person who appears in it. The differences found contribute toward explaining the processes that lead to making immoral decisions when sexting and help lay the foundations for designing psychoeducational programs in the future.

[Non-consensual forwarding of personal erotic photos at schools : A survey of school principals in Schleswig-Holstein on sexual border violations using digital media]

Hintergrund

Neben Chancen bringen Internet und digitale Medien für Kinder und Jugendliche auch Risiken mit sich. Ein solches stellen Fälle dar, bei denen persönliche erotische Fotos von Schüler:innen gegen deren Willen weiterverbreitet werden. Für Betroffene können die psychosozialen Konsequenzen gravierend sein.

Ziel der Arbeit

Mit der vorliegenden Arbeit sollen Prävalenz von und Umgang mit der nichteinvernehmlichen Weiterleitung persönlicher erotischer Fotos unter Schüler:innen an Schulen in Schleswig-Holstein erhoben werden.

Methode

Vom 25.04. bis zum 07.06.2019 wurden die Schulleitungen von weiterführenden Schulen mittels eines Onlinekurzfragebogens sowohl zum Vorkommen nichtkonsensueller Fotoweiterleitung an den jeweiligen Schulen befragt als auch zu ergriffenen Maßnahmen, Folgen für die betroffenen Schüler:innen und Konsequenzen für diejenigen, die die Fotos versendet haben. Die Angaben von 74 Schulleitungen konnten in die Datenanalyse aufgenommen werden.

Ergebnisse

An mehr als zwei Dritteln der Schulen wurde den Schulleitungen mindestens ein Fall von nichtkonsensueller Fotoweiterleitung bekannt. Ergriffene Maßnahmen waren zumeist die Information der Eltern aller Beteiligten und ein „angeleiteter Austausch“ zwischen den beteiligten Schüler:innen. Als Folgen für die betroffenen Schüler:innen wurden v. a. sozialer Rückzug, psychisches Leiden, schulische Leistungsprobleme und Erfahrungen mit Cybermobbing/-bullying berichtet. In acht Fällen verließen betroffene Schüler:innen die Schule.

Diskussion

Nichtkonsensuelle Fotoweiterleitung an Schulen ist ein Problem erheblichen Ausmaßes. Zeitgemäße spezifische Präventionsmaßnahmen sind dringend erforderlich.

Sexting Among Adolescents: The Emotional Impact and Influence of the Need for Popularity

Sexting refers to the exchange of sexual content material via technological devices. The definitions of this phenomenon vary greatly, mainly, depending on the types of sexting: primary and secondary. Besides the above, there is no common perspective on whether sexting is a risk behavior that entails some type of impact by itself or not and, in such a case, whether this impact varies according to gender. In addition, the need to be popular has shown to be a factor that could increase the probability of being involved in sexting. The present study analyzes the potential emotional impact of sexting as well as the effect of the need for popularity on this phenomenon and if it varies according to gender. The sample comprised 2,356 high school students (46.8% female, 53.2% male; age range 11-18 years old, M = 13.72; SD = 1.31) belonging to 12 compulsory secondary education (ESO) schools from the south of Spain. To assess sexting implication, four questions were presented to participants (sending, receiving, forwarding, and receiving sexts via intermediary). Scales, self-report, about emotional impact (depressed, annoyed, and active) and need for popularity were also applied. The results obtained show that, although sexting has a clear emotional impact on adolescents, it does not appear to generate a negative impact among those involved, at least in the short term. Concretely, this phenomenon seems to trigger emotions related to activation in boys and girls (I feel lively, energetic, satisfied, ready, determined, active). Additionally, with respect to the need for popularity, its relevance, specially, in relation to active emotional impact has been confirmed by the analyses. Statistical models found for boys and girls were similar. In addition, some differences in emotional impact by gender were found, girls feeling more depressed and annoyed in secondary sexting, and boys more active regarding both types of sexting.