It’s Not Just Sexting: Adolescents’ Experiences with Exchanging and Disseminating Nude Images

AbstractAs mobile devices become increasingly versatile and integrated into the daily lives of youth, their use for sexual purposes has also risen. One such example is sexting, which enables adolescents to engage in digital sexual communication and expression via nude and semi-nude imagery. This chapter presents an overview of sexting research among adolescents, specifically examining the prevalence rates and the motivations for and pressures to engage in this multidimensional behavior. Additionally, we discuss the potential problems associated with nonconsensual sexting (e.g., anxiety and risk-taking) and the dissemination of sexts through a school (e.g., mental health, fear of going to school) that are disproportionately experienced by girls and LGBTQ+ youth. We discuss future research that focuses on individual-level characteristics such as age, gender, indigeneity, and sexual identity that make some adolescents more vulnerable than others to harmful outcomes associated with sexting. We also provide recommendations for how schools can prevent and respond to sexting among students and how to encourage parents to discuss sexting with their adolescent children.