Online Disclosure of Sexual Victimization and Social Reactions: What Do We Know?

Abstract

Many survivors of sexual violence share their experiences with someone. As social media becomes an increasingly common platform for disclosing and responding to sexual victimization, it is vital to consider how existing research examining in-person disclosure of sexual victimization – and the social reactions of support providers – may or may not generalize to the experience of disclosing sexual victimization in online spaces. Following a public health approach, this review and commentary brings together emerging, mid-career, and established scholars in sexual assault disclosure and social reactions to disclosure with the goal of critically examining “what we know” and “what we don’t know” about sexual assault disclosure and social reactions to disclosure that occur in an online forum (i.e., blog post, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media site). Drawing upon “what we don’t know” about the ways in which sexual assault disclosure occurs in online contexts, we generate suggestions for research, as well as strategies for understanding how best to create safer and more supportive experiences for survivors of sexual victimization who choose to disclose their experiences online.

Keywords:

• Disclosure
• sexual assault
• social media
• social reactions