Resource and Risk: Youth Sexuality and New Media Use

Abstract

Some contemporary moral panics orbit around youth sexuality and new media use. This article addresses those moral panics by investigating teenagers' practices regarding new media and sexuality. New media technologies are central parts of young people's social, romantic, and sexual lives. These communication technologies are important in their practices of meeting, dating, and breaking up. New media technologies also provide important resources about sexual health and identities. However, these informational and relational resources are not equally available to all young people. Indeed use and access to new media technologies often mirrors the contemporary ordering of economic, racialized, and gendered power. Additionally, while youth are aware of online safety practices, some youth are more vulnerable to online risks than others.

Catalan adolescents’ media uses and leisure preferences related to new media and television

“…In fact, more recent works, carried out since the last years of the 1990s, have identified the main features of youth's media and leisure habits, emphasizing in particular their use of new media (e.g., Athenstaedt et al 2009;Bell and Dittmar 2011;Coatsworth et al 2005;Hagen 2007;Holloway and Green 2008;Livingstone et al 2011;Pascoe 2011;Roberts and Foehr 2008;Romer et al 2012;Thulin and Vilhelmson 2007;Videnovic´ et al 2010;Wilska and Pedrozo 2007).…”

Pitfalls, Potentials, and Ethics of Online Survey Research: LGBTQ and Other Marginalized and Hard-to-Access Youths

“…Variations in digital capabilities and access to technology may also affect the representativeness of results ( Denissen et al, 2010). Although this issue is decreasingly relevant with contemporary youth populations in the United States and Canada, as their online participation is nearly universal ( Lenhart et al, 2015;Steeves, 2014), some differences may persist that affect the ability to both access and use technology ( Pascoe, 2011;Willis, 2011). Online opportunities may remain more limited for youths who have less-educated parents, come from lower SES backgrounds, live in rural areas, or are ethnoracial minorities ( Pascoe, 2011;Roberts & Foehr, 2008), potentially influencing online sample composition.…”

“…Although this issue is decreasingly relevant with contemporary youth populations in the United States and Canada, as their online participation is nearly universal ( Lenhart et al, 2015;Steeves, 2014), some differences may persist that affect the ability to both access and use technology ( Pascoe, 2011;Willis, 2011). Online opportunities may remain more limited for youths who have less-educated parents, come from lower SES backgrounds, live in rural areas, or are ethnoracial minorities ( Pascoe, 2011;Roberts & Foehr, 2008), potentially influencing online sample composition. However, these indicators may be decreasingly significant as the technological immersion of youths in multiple settings (for example, home, school, community) continues to increase.…”

“…Online technologies "reduce or temporarily remove barriers associated with geography, age" ( Hillier & Harrison, 2007, p. 84), and marginalization and permit recruitment of previously understudied populations and subpopulations for research ( Pascoe, 2011;Willis, 2011). For the purposes of this article, populations and subpopulations refer to communities or groups composed of individuals who share one or more unique social identity markers, geographic spaces, or both.…”

Doing the möbius strip: The politics of the Bailey Review

“…Where research has avoided the dehumanising narrative of 'sexualisation' as degradation in exploring this issue, the result has been a subtle analysis with great critical power (e.g. Renold & Ringrose, 2008;Pascoe, 2011).…”