How Risky is Online Sexting by Minors?

ABSTRACT

What proportion of minors who engage in sexting find themselves involved in an episode of image abuse? The data come from a US nationally representative sample of 2639 respondents aged 18–28 reporting about experiences before the age of 18, of whom 23% had engaged in sexting as minors. Among those who sexted the rate of image abuse was 37%, a risk ratio of 13.2 compared to those who did not engage in sexting. For females who sexted the victimization rate was particularly high, but sexting increased risk for females and males. Among the minors who only sexted occasionally (vs those who sexted frequently) the rate of abuse was still high (35%) and the reduction in risk modest. When we controlled for other background and demographic risk factors like adversities and prior sexual abuse, it did not substantially reduce the large risk entailed with sexting. Various harm reduction strategies may be needed to supplement messages about dangers and risks.

KEYWORDS:

• Online sexual abuse
• sextortion
• child pornography
• image abuse
• child sexual abuse materials

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible institutional review board of the University of New Hampshire and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by grant 2020R2CX0015 from the National Institute of Justice.

Notes on contributors

David Finkelhor

David Finkelhor, Ph.D., is Director of Crimes Against Children Research Center and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire. He has been studying the problems of child victimization, child maltreatment, and family violence since 1977.

Samantha Sutton

Samantha Sutton, M.A., is a doctoral candidate in the University of New Hampshire’s Sociology Ph.D. program. Her research focuses on child victimization, particularly when facilitated by technology.

Heather Turner

Heather A. Turner, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology and Senior Researcher at the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Dr. Turner’s research focuses on social stress processes and mental health, including the effects of violence, victimization, and other forms of adversity on the social and psychological development of children and adolescents.

Deirdre Colburn

Deirdre Colburn, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Her research interests bridge the areas of healthcare utilization, help-seeking, and the role of technology in a variety of health-related outcomes.