Shift in Education Needed to Change Sexting Culture, Study Shows

Published on: 9 Nov, 2019
Updated on: 21 Nov, 2019

Sex and relationship education about youth sexting needs updating, shows research in the International Journal on Bullying Prevention by Dr Emily Setty of the University of Surrey.

Rather than focusing purely on risk avoidance and abstinence, Dr Setty suggests sex and relationships education (SRE) should extend to raise awareness among young people of their responsibility to their peers as bystanders and how they might unwittingly promote harmful sexting practices.

She believes SRE should pay attention to the broader youth cultural context surrounding sexting while agreeing that young people form judgements based on age-old gender stereotypes and assumptions.

The research found views based on these assumptions facilitate and reinforce harmful practices. The attribution of “lad points” to young men who share sexted pictures encourages unauthorised distribution of images.

Young women who share images with partners who betray their trust are shamed as “sluts”. But sexist assumptions taken for granted can mean young men are denied support when they themselves are negatively impacted by sexting.

Present SRE involving sexting encourages young people to abstain from producing and sharing personal sexual images because of the risks involved. Dr Setty’s research recommends supplementing this with an approach in which sexting education could become a platform for critical learning about relationships, sex, rights, responsibilities, ethics and justice.

It suggests young people could be asked what they think about sexual and bodily expression in a broad sense, then guided to explore how risk and harm emerge from a culture of stereotypes and inequalities.

Dr Setty said: “A different approach to teaching and a particular focus on bystander intervention could help reduce the bullying associated with youth sexting.

“Better sex and relationships education could contribute to it becoming socially unacceptable to impinge on peers’ rights, not just their rights to privacy but also to self-expression and safety.

“A ‘thou shalt not sext’ approach in isolation lets the pervading culture among young people off the hook. Arresting and reversing the damage done to young people through sexting requires education that sets out to change the culture, not just wish the problem away.”

Dr Setty, lecturer in criminology, interviewed with 41 young people aged 14 to 18 to explore the social meanings and cultural norms that shape harmful sexting practices, including breaches of privacy and consent, victim-blaming and bullying within young people’s peer contexts.