Sextortion and Suicide: Implications for Adolescent Image-Based Abuse
Background: Sextortion – the threatened dissemination of explicit, intimate, or embarrassingimages of a sexual nature without consent for the purpose of acquiring money, more images, orsomething else – has emerged as a critical public safety and public health concern for youth inrecent years.Objective: The current study explores the extent of sextortion among youth, as well […]
New Research Shows Teen Sexting and Risk of Sextortion is Increasing
Sameer and I first collected data on teen sexting nearly a decade ago and found that 7-11% of 12-17-year-olds in the US had sent a sexually explicit image of themselves to someone else. About 15% had received such an image from someone else. Last year, we replicated this research and found that 24% of 13-17-year-olds […]
When Sexting Goes Wrong: The Extent of Nonconsensual Sharing and Sextortion Among U.S. Teens
Purpose: Sexting, the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images or video, isa potentially risky behavior in which many youth participate. The purpose of this study was to examinethe extent of sexting, as well as related harms including nonconsensual sharing of content and sextortion,especially when sexting with those who are not current […]
Bradyn’s Law: Wisconsin’s Effort to Combat a Rise in Youth Sextortion
Bradyn Bohn was a 15-year-old freshman in the DC Everest School District in central Wisconsin. He loved sports, music, and making people laugh. Like most teens, he spent a lot of time online. One night in early March of this year, he met someone on Facebook who was fun and cute. While the details are […]
Addressing Youth Sexting Through Rational Legislation and Education
Sexting is defined as “the sending or receiving of sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images or videos,” usually via mobile devices. Our research indicates that at least 14% of US middle and high school students report that they have sent explicit images to others, while about 23% have received these kinds of images from their […]
The Nature and Extent of Youth Sextortion: Legal Implications and Directions for Future Research
Sextortion, the threatened dissemination of explicit, intimate, or embarrassing images of a sexual nature without consent, is an understudied problem. Despite a recent increase in reported incidents among adolescents in the United States, little is known about the nature and extent of sextortion among this population. The current research explores sextortion behaviors among a national […]
Social Media and Tech Misuse Scenarios
This resources provides scenarios that parents, educators, and other adults can use to discuss issues that may come up when young people are using technology. Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2023). Social Media and Tech Misuse Scenarios. Cyberbullying Research Center. Retrieved [insert date], from https://cyberbullying.org/Social-Media-and-Tech-Misuse-Scenarios.pdf Download the Scenarios
Take it Down: A New Tool to Combat the Unauthorized Sharing of Explicit Images of Minors
It has long been stressed that once you send an image to someone else, or post it online, you lose complete control over how that image is used and where it might end up. While this is still mostly true, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), with funding from Meta, has developed […]
School Administrators Charged with Child Exploitation After Investigating Sexting
Last spring, Brush High School (Brush, Colorado) assistant principal Bradley Bass was alerted to a student sexting issue at his school. He and secondary schools director Scott Hodgson looked into it. They talked to some students who were reportedly involved, and determined that intimate images had been shared consensually. At least one student voluntarily showed […]
Model Sexting Law
In my last post, I discussed what I learned in reviewing all of the state sexting laws across the U.S. Some states have comprehensive sexting laws while many others—23 to be exact—have no sexting specific law whatsoever. As noted in my post, this is problematic for a number of reasons, including the risk that minors […]
