Slutpage Use Among U.S. College Students: The Secret and Social Platforms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse

Abstract

The phenomenon of "slutpages," tied to high schools, fraternities, and the military, used to post, share, and comment on nude and semi-nude images of women, has emerged in mass media. To our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically investigate slutpage use behaviors including: visiting slutpages, posting nude images/videos online without consent, and using a vault app to store/share nude images. We conducted a survey of undergraduate college students attending a large Midwestern university in the U.S., with 1867 respondents (36.4% cis/transgender men, 63.6% cisgender women; 18-24 years old M = 20.39) to determine who is engaging in slutpage use behaviors. Our results showed that younger participants and men were more likely to engage in slutpage use behaviors than older participants and women, especially if they participated in Greek Life or played a team sport for their university. Men in a fraternity or on a team sport visited slutpages and posted nude images/video online without consent more frequently than men outside these groups, or women in general. Drinking alcohol and using pornography more frequently were also associated with slutpage use behaviors. This study provides a new understanding of slutpages as a social form of image-based sexual abuse and informs researchers, educators, and policy makers to expand their inquiry into online sexual experiences and exploitation to include this phenomenon.

Just Checking It Out? Motivations for and Behavioral Associations With Visiting “Slutpages” in the United States and Australia

“…However, the only empirical study regarding OIBEV to our knowledge (Maas et al, 2021), found that 30% of women also viewed "slutpages, " albeit less frequently than men (40%). Given that most OIBEVS almost exclusively depict women, and are predominantly designed for the male gaze, this gives rise to questions about why women would view such sites.…”

“…In the hierarchical regressions, the combined demographic variables did not explain large amounts of variance, with sexting-related variables offering more explanatory power for OIBEV behaviors. Although our sample was not restricted to college or tertiary students, higher OIBEV frequencies in the United States may reflect higher engagement in tertiary residential social societies (e.g., sororities, fraternities) which are more common in United States institutions, and are associated with higher levels of OIBEV use (Maas et al, 2021).…”

“…Drawing on Maas et al (2021), we determined whether participants had ever visited an OIBEV site with the following item: "Have you ever visited a secret page on social media (such as Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat, etc.) or a website of nude images or video that were posted without the knowledge of those in the images/videos (sometimes referred to as Slutpages/Listservs)?".…”

“…To date, there has been minimal empirical research addressing OIBEV. In a United States -based college sample, Maas et al (2021) found that 33.7% of emerging adults reported having visited "slutpages, " whilst 2.8% had posted images to such sites. Men (6.5%) were significantly more likely to post images than women (0.8%).…”

Problematic Pornography Use: Legal and Health Policy Considerations

“…The development of “slutpages”, particularly in the USA, is an example of self-generated pornography where women are exposed to another form of pornography-inspired exploitative behaviour [ 86 ].…”