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Abstract: 

“Why on earth do they do it?” With so little to be gained and so much to lose, why do young men and women send nude photos of themselves into a digital world where they no longer have any control over what happens to the images, or who sees them, or for how long? Increasingly, the answer is “I was forced to do it.” In the second of a series of articles on teen sexting, the author reports the findings of her study, which surveyed college students to understand their habits and motivations related to sexting, cyberbullying, and revenge porn. Dr. Englander’s study sought to understand the dynamics of coerced or pressured sexting, one important form of digital sexual harassment during adolescence. The variables examine included gender, age, and relationship to the other party. Most students reported at least some pressure or coercion to sext, saw a relationship between sexting and popularity, and were most likely to sext in the later years of high school. The author highlighted reasons student decided not to sext, even when pressured to do so. Defying adult expectations, some students reported some positive consequences following sexting, too, along with the predictable negative ones.

Keywords: peer pressure, social anxiety, adolescent risk-taking, sexual harassment, sexting, social media, cyberbullying, revenge porn, gender

Affiliations:  1: Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center.