Young people’s views on sexting education and support needs: findings and recommendations from a UK-based study

Young people’s sexting is an area of increasing concern amongst parents, educationalists and policy makers, yet little research has been conducted with young people themselves to explore their perspectives on the support they need to navigate relationships in the new digital media landscape. To address this absence, an interdisciplinary team of researchers undertook a participatory study with students, aged 13 to 15, in a UK secondary school. This paper outlines key study findings, including young people’s views on sexting, their recommendations for improved education around sexting in schools, their preferred sources of support, and their perspectives on the way adults should respond to young people’s sexting. Findings indicate that sexting education needs to be developed within the context of wider relationship issues, such as gender, power dynamics and trust between peers, and improved communication between students and teachers or other responsible adults. Findings may be used to consider ways of designing and communicating messages around sexting to young people within and beyond educational settings.

"A key finding from the project was the importance of the style and content of communication between young people and relevant adults. The young people in the study repeatedly stated that they would like teachers, parents and others to respond to sexting practices by talking with them (e.g. in a class) rather than at them (e.g. in assemblies). Participants were not particularly interested in web applications (apps) or websites on this matter, but preferred a more personal and relational communicative approach. They also emphasised the importance of teachers and parents not ‘shouting’ or ‘having a go’ at them. Most participants reported that they had only been taught about sexting through assemblies led by community police officers presenting a cyber-safety film... Most participants reported that they had only been taught about sexting through assemblies led by community police officers presenting a cyber-safety film. As has been reported elsewhere (Dobson and Ringrose 2016) such initiatives tend to construct schools as sites for the policing of sex and gender norms. Additionally, such initiatives tend to be based on problematic responses that criminalise sexting or adopt an abstinence stance (Albury et al. 2013; Hasinoff 2013; Karaian 2014). Education concerning the potential legal implications of sexting may however, in itself, not prevent young people from participating in the practice (Walker, Sanci, and Temple-Smith 2013). Considering participants’ varied views on sexting, and their preference for a smaller interactive and gender-separated settings for discussing sexting practices, one key recommendation from the study would be for schools to consider carefully the forum in which material on sexting are presented, the methods by which it is communicated, and the way the varied motivations for sexting can be acknowledged. Trust and breaches of trust were recurring issues in young people’s narratives of why nudes were sent and leaked and when talking about who to turn to for support if an incident occurred. Concerns about confidentiality were also prevalent and some participants were worried that they could not trust their teachers with information about sexting. " (Jørgensen et al, 2019: 35-6).