In recent years, discussions have sparked about the risks and opportunities that digital technologies may have for adolescents. Some researchers argue that the best way to increase online opportunities and avoid online risks is to increase adolescents' digital skills. For this reason, the first goal of this study was to examine how adolescents' digital skills are related to their online opportunities and online risks behaviours. A second goal was to examine the influence of two ways of parental mediation (active and restrictive) on the level of teenagers' digital skills, and subsequently their online opportunities and online risks. Finally, we intended to establish the validity and the structure of the Digital Literacy Scale. Using data from a cross-sectional survey of 1.446 Spanish secondary school pupils, we found that more digitally skilled adolescents take more opportunities, and experience more risks. Digital literacy mediates the relationship between restrictive (but not of active) parental mediation and online risks and opportunities. Furthermore, the Digital Literacy Scale was shown to be valid in terms of construct validity. The findings suggest that digital literacy remains essential as it lets teenagers take more opportunities, and that parents should opt for other ways of mediation rather than restrictive mediation.

The present studies tested the effectiveness of implementation intentions with an "if [situation], then not [habitual response]" structure. Based on ironic process theory and the literature on the processing of negations, it was expected that these "negation implementation intentions" would, ironically, strengthen the habit (situation-response association) one aims to break. In line with the hypotheses, forming negation implementation intentions resulted in cognitive ironic rebound effects as well as behavioral ironic rebound effects compared to an intention only condition or a replacement implementation intention. Additionally, it was found that negation implementation intentions are most likely to result in ironic rebound effects when the habit to be negated is strong. Although implementation intentions are generally highly effective in facilitating behavior change even when this involves breaking unwanted habits, the present research suggests that they are ineffective when they have a negating structure.

The present study investigated whether engaging in sexy self-presentations on social network sites (SNSs) or exposure to sexy self-presentations on SNSs predicts the willingness to engage in sexting. A second aim of the present study was to investigate whether adolescent girls demonstrate stronger relationships between (exposure to) sexy online self-presentations on SNSs and willingness to sext than adolescent boys and young adult men and women. A two-wave panel survey among 953 Dutch adolescents (13-17 years old, 50.7% male) and 899 Dutch young adults (18-25 years old, 43.9% male) showed that engaging in sexy self-presentations on SNSs increased the willingness to engage in sexting, but only among adolescent girls. Exposure to sexy self-presentations of others did not predict the willingness to engage in sexting. The findings call for more research on the role of gender and age in the link between sexy self-presentation and sexting.

Media literacy interventions partly aim at preventing undesirable media effects at a later point of time. However, longitudinal research on the interaction between media literacy education and media effects is lacking. In this longitudinal study among 1,94713-25-year-olds, we started to address this lacuna by examining the potential of porn literacy education at schools to attenuate the longitudinal relationship between exposure to sexually explicit Internet material (SEIM) and views of women as sex objects. A two-way interaction effect emerged: The relationship between SEIM and sexist views became weaker, the more users had learned from porn literacy education. No gender or age differences occurred. This study thus provides some first evidence for the role of media education in reducing undesirable media effects.

Gender roles on social networking sites: Investigating reciprocal relationships between Dutch adolescents' hypermasculinity and hyperfemininity and sexy online self-presentations van Oosten, J.M.F.; Vandenbosch, L.P.; Peter, J.

Previous research suggests that adolescents' social network site use is related to their sexual development. However, the associations between adolescents' exposure to sexy self-presentations of others on social network sites and their sexual attitudes and experience have not yet been empirically supported. This study investigated reciprocal longitudinal relationships between adolescents' exposure to others' sexy self-presentations on social network sites and their sexual attitudes (i.e., sexual objectification of girls and instrumental attitudes towards sex) and sexual experience. We further tested whether these associations depended on adolescents' age and gender. Results from a representative two-wave panel study among 1,636 Dutch adolescents (aged 13-17, 51.5 % female) showed that exposure to sexy online self-presentations of others predicted changes in adolescents' experience with oral sex and intercourse 6 months later, but did not influence their sexual attitudes. Adolescents' instrumental attitudes towards sex, in turn, did predict their exposure to others' sexy online self-presentations. Sexual objectification increased such exposure for younger adolescents, but decreased exposure for older adolescents. In addition, adolescents' experience with genital touching as well as oral sex (only for adolescents aged 13-15) predicted their exposure to sexy self-presentations of others. These findings tentatively suggest that the influence on adolescents' sexual attitudes previously found for sexual media content may not hold for sexy self-presentations on social network sites. However, exposure to sexy self-presentations on social network sites is motivated by adolescents' sexual attitudes and behavior, especially among young adolescents.

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Research on how sexual music videos affect beliefs related to sexual aggression is rare and has not differentiated between the effects of music videos by male and female artists. Moreover, little is known about the affective processes that underlie the effects of sexual music videos. Using data from a nationally representative three-wave panel survey among 1,204 Dutch adolescents, structural equation modeling showed that viewing sexual music videos by male artists increased the acceptance of female token resistance (i.e., the notion that women say "no" to sex when they actually mean "yes") among adolescent girls, but not adolescent boys. Furthermore, viewing sexual music videos by male artists influenced girls' acceptance of token resistance indirectly via affective engagement. The findings suggest that effects of sexual music videos on stereotypical sexual beliefs depend on the specific type of music video and viewers' gender, and can be partly explained by viewers' affective engagement.