Introduction: There is growing evidence about the prevalence of sending, receiving, or resharing nude images by youth (sexting). Less is known about the demographic, technology use, and social context correlates of sexting. Using logistic regression, we looked at predictors of sexting behaviors in minors. Methods: Participants were a market panel sample of 394 youths aged 9-12 and 602 youths aged 13-17 (M age = 13.5, SD = 2.50, 60.3% females) recruited for an anonymous online survey in the United States. The survey comprised questions about demographic characteristics, sexting behaviors, technology use, attitudes, and perceived norms. The four outcomes were sending nude or near-nude images or videos (images), receiving images sent without the depicted person's knowledge, nonconsensually resharing images, or having one's own images nonconsensually reshared. Results: Regression analyses showed gender, gender/sexual minority status, use of dating apps and particular online platforms, self-sharing and resharing attitudes, and friend norms predicted sending images. Age, resharing attitudes, and friend norms all predicted receiving nude images of other youths. Household income, geographic location, some online platforms, resharing attitudes, and friend norms all predicted nonconsensual resharing of nudes. Age, use of encrypted apps, and friend norms predicted having one's own image nonconsensually reshared. Conclusions: We partially replicated prior research by finding associations between age and gender. Further, we identified technology use factors including the use of dating apps and particular platforms. Attitudes about sexting and perceived friend norms were robust across sexting behaviors, suggesting these factors are potentially important for intervention.
Parents and other adult caregivers of biologically or sociolegally related children (hereafter, “parents”) can play an important role in the online behavior of children in their care. In this study, we examined parental correlates of three outcomes— talking to their child about image sharing (66% yes); expecting their child had shared sexually explicit images (39% yes); and preparedness if their child’s sexually explicit images were leaked (38% yes)—in a survey of a nationally representative sample of 402 parents in the United States. Regression analyses revealed that talking to one’s child about sexually explicit image sharing was significantly associated with the parent being a mother, having a child in high school, enforcing a higher number of technology rules, knowing about secondary social media accounts, and expecting that their child’s friends share sexually explicit images of themselves. Expecting their child had sent sexually explicit images was significantly predicted by parents having fewer technology rules in place for their child, more permissive parental attitudes about resharing sexually explicit images, and the expectation that their child’s friends or schoolmates had sent sexually explicit images. Unexpectedly, perceived parental preparedness if their child’s sexually explicit images were leaked was significantly predicted by less—rather than more—parental comfort in talking to children about their child’s online activities.
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