ERIC Number: EJ1419872
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1468-1811
EISSN: EISSN-1472-0825
Preventing Image-Based Sexual Coercion, Harassment and Abuse among Teenagers: Girls Deconstruct Sexting-Related Harm Prevention Messages
Nicola Gavey; April Wech; Pearl Hindley; Brandee Thorburn; Grace Single; Octavia Calder-Dawe; Paulette Benton-Greig
Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, v24 n3 p328-343 2024
This paper explores teenage girls' responses to general advice, and formal prevention messages, designed to reduce sexting-related risk and prevent harm. We conducted workshops with seven groups of girls (28 in total), aged 16-17 years, in a New Zealand city. Each group participated in a series of three workshop sessions. Drawing on a Freirean 'problem-posing' approach, we designed the workshops as spaces in which girls were invited to observe and critically discuss norms related to sharing nudes as well as harm prevention messages. Girls noticed the problematic gender and sexual politics that shape abstinence-based models that target girls (implicitly) to not send nudes, but which leave boys who distribute or otherwise misuse them out of the picture. Participants navigated a careful path between attending to risk and protection on the one hand, and endorsing their right to freedom of expression on the other. We argue for a subtle, but significant, shift away from a focus on sexting safety to a focus on the prevention of image-based sexual coercion, harassment and abuse. This reframing would help to direct prevention efforts to the gendered drivers and dynamics of harm perpetration, and the ways in which they are problematically socially ignored or condoned.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Females, Sexual Abuse, Prevention, Adolescents, Telecommunications, Handheld Devices, Safety Education, Sex Education, Photography, Synchronous Communication, Sexual Harassment, Ethnic Diversity, Victims of Crime, Rape, Violence, Student Attitudes, Student Experience
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New Zealand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A