“It’s not just talking about the birds and the bees anymore”: Parent-child communication about sexting

ABSTRACT

We investigated how parents discuss sexting issues with their adolescent children, with a focus on parental mediation strategies used and barriers encountered. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 parents who had at least one child aged 12–17. Our analysis revealed that parents employed discursive, investigative, and gatekeeping mediation strategies when discussing sexting with their children, and that trusting their child knew better, lacking resources, and feeling uncomfortable were the main barriers to sexting conversations. This research may help parents to have more productive sexting-related conversations with their children, which could reduce risky sexting behaviors and promote a healthy sexuality among adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• sexting
• adolescents
• parental mediation
• Communication
• Technology

Disclosure statement

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