{"title":"Exploring Italian adolescents’ perspectives on online pornography and perceived harms","authors":"Cosimo Marco Scarcelli","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333730","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333730","url":null,"abstract":"The evolving technological and social landscape offers adolescents new avenues for engaging with digital content, particularly in the realm of intimate activities. Public discourse often oversimplifies the intricate relationship between adolescents and online pornography. The prevailing narrative tends to portray pornography as detrimental to health and well-being, relying on a limited exposure and effects model that fails to grasp its nuanced significance in young lives. Online pornography, easily accessible to young individuals, is criticised for potentially replacing informative sex education with representations of violent and risky relationships. Employing media and cultural studies tools, this research positions porn consumption within the broader context of new mediated intimacies. The study aims to unravel how young Italians (15- to 18-year-olds) perceive and interpret harms in relation to online pornography. Findings reveal that despite a critical perspective, many participants maintain stereotypical views on gender and age dynamics, reflecting broader societal discourses about effects and addiction.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"5 1","pages":"2513-2531"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Catherine Page Jeffery, Alan McKee, Catharine Lumby
{"title":"Young people and sexually explicit content online: Exploring Australian parents’ concerns","authors":"Catherine Page Jeffery, Alan McKee, Catharine Lumby","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333728","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333728","url":null,"abstract":"Ongoing discussion between parents and their children, including listening to young people, is essential to enable young people to safely navigate the online sexual ecosystem. Research suggests, however, that parents and their children conceptualise and discuss online risks in different ways. This article documents findings from interviews and focus groups with 40 Australian parents exploring their perspectives and concerns about online pornography, and provides insights into the extent to which the adults report listening to and engaging with young people. It reveals that while parents are concerned about online pornography, most do not know what their children are doing online and do not appear to be discussing the issue with their children in ways which explore their children’s experiences, perspectives and concerns. It concludes by suggesting that education about online pornography be extended to parents so that they are better able to support young people in navigating the online sexual ecosystem.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"12 1","pages":"2620-2637"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michaela Šaradín Lebedíková, Rubén Olveira-Araujo, Kaveri Subrahmanyam, David Šmahel
{"title":"Individual factors of expected and unexpected sexting and the subsequent feelings: A nationally representative study in adolescents","authors":"Michaela Šaradín Lebedíková, Rubén Olveira-Araujo, Kaveri Subrahmanyam, David Šmahel","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333731","url":null,"abstract":"Sexting is prevalent among adolescents, yet we lack an understanding of adolescents’ responses to its various forms and the factors that may drive those responses. This study adopts an integrative media effects framework and a nationally representative sample of Czech adolescents (11–16 years old, <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 2500, 50% girls) to investigate: (1) the associations between depression, loneliness, self-esteem, happiness, sensation seeking, age and gender, and the different types of sexting behavior (both expected and unexpected receiving and sending of sexts); and (2) the role of individual factors in feeling happy and upset after different types of sexting. While we found a similar pattern for the associations of individual factors with engagement in the three sexting behaviors, we found no pattern for the associations across the outcomes (i.e. feeling happy and upset). Our findings show that the outcomes of sexting must be researched as individual behaviors, not as one “sexting” behavior.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"2 1","pages":"2552-2574"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Young people’s perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content","authors":"Despina Chronaki, Debra Dudek, Giselle Woodley","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333746","url":null,"abstract":"Harm—and the ways in which it is interpreted, negotiated, discussed, and unpacked by adolescents themselves—is a key term in almost all debates about young people’s experiences with online pornography. This essay situates the topic of this special issue—adolescents’ perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content—within a broader context of the discourses and practices that inform research in this field. We show how discourses of harm and risk circulate around the figure of the innocent child in need of protection and argue for more nuanced understandings of and research about childhood that take into account the lived experiences and perspectives of young people themselves. The papers in this special issue cover a range of academic perspectives and reflect diverse epistemological, methodological, and academic cultures. The special issue underscores the complex nature of the topic and the need for nuanced, rigorous, and robust empirical research.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"12 1","pages":"2457-2472"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elisabeth Staksrud, Niamh Ní Bhroin, Nora Josefine B Englund, Jenny Krutzinna
{"title":"Ethical inclusion of children in sensitive research: A four-dimensional model","authors":"Elisabeth Staksrud, Niamh Ní Bhroin, Nora Josefine B Englund, Jenny Krutzinna","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333736","url":null,"abstract":"The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child ‘UNCRC’ provides that children should participate in research about matters that concern them. However, this is not always realised, particularly in the context of risky, sensitive and morally complex experiences. Failure to include children causes lacunae in our understanding of the factors that influence their lives and well-being. In this article, we propose to conceptualise approaches to including children in research along four dimensions: Exclusion; Exploitation; Extension; and Empowerment. Using research on children’s experiences with online sexual content as a case, we discuss ethical dilemmas related to including children in research. Finally, we present 10 recommendations for future research to respect children’ agency and empower them to participate in research in an ethically responsible manner.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"13 1","pages":"2473-2491"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maria-Jose Masanet, Laura Fernández, Sergio Villanueva Baselga
{"title":"Breaking expectations through personal experiences! Young people reflecting and learning about sexualities and gender through porn: An ethnographic study in Barcelona","authors":"Maria-Jose Masanet, Laura Fernández, Sergio Villanueva Baselga","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333733","url":null,"abstract":"Porn studies have a long tradition of researching porn as a cultural artifact in relation to adult audiences. Recently, there has been increasing interest in young people’s uses and perceptions of porn since there is a general concern about its possible harms and dangers. This article aims to shed light on these issues through an ethnographic study carried out in Barcelona and its metropolitan area. Our main objective is to understand how teenagers and young people use, experience, and give meaning to the porn content they consume. We applied a bottom-up approach that brings the real and everyday experiences of young people to the discussion. The results focus on three areas: the spatial, temporal, and media context in which young people approach porn; their own interpretations of pornographic content, considering gender differences; and the double preventive and educational view young people extract from porn.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"32 1","pages":"2532-2551"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“My mom caught me watching porn!”: YouTube videos as performative risk biography and cautionary sex ed","authors":"Jessica Yarin Robinson, Khalid Ezat Azam","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333738","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the presentation and public self-disclosure of sexual content by young people on YouTube’s #storytime genre. Applying Beck’s concept of the “risk biography,” we explore the way these digital narratives recount encounters with pornography in a setting intended to reach other young people. The analysis combines computational text analysis with manual analyses to characterize how young people tell their own stories. Findings suggest that while content creators critically address sexual norms, they also reinforce the Internet’s potential for harm. Yet, the greatest risk identified is not pornography itself, but parents—namely, the threat of punishment, including physical punishment.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"22 1","pages":"2575-2596"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Robyn Vertongen, Clifford van Ommen, Kerry Chamberlain
{"title":"Young adolescent men’s perspectives on risks and harmful impacts of pornography use","authors":"Robyn Vertongen, Clifford van Ommen, Kerry Chamberlain","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333735","url":null,"abstract":"Pornography use is often considered harmful, but what constitutes such harm is frequently vague and driven by adult perspectives about risk. This study aimed to explore how adolescents themselves understood harm and risk from pornography use. Thirteen male adolescents, 14 to 15 years old, were interviewed using in-depth interviews to understand their perspectives of risk and harm. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify three pertinent themes: pornography is risky and harmful, especially to naïve consumers; pornography is not harmful to me, because strategies of control can be used; and generational disparity, where differences between adult claims of harm and personal experiences were questioned. We propose adolescents’ concern for others’ wellbeing over their personal risks be considered as showing compassion. We conclude that adolescent perceptions of risk and harm are nuanced and insightful, and that adolescents can engage critically with pornography content to manage potential risks and harm.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"174 1","pages":"2492-2512"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Debating pornography and the notion of harm in public discourse: The case of Billie Eilish’s experiences with sexual content online","authors":"Despina Chronaki, Liza Tsaliki, Debra Dudek, Elisabeth Staksrud, Giselle Woodley, Thi Bich Thuy Dinh","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333740","url":null,"abstract":"Young people’s experiences with sexual content online are a regularly featured popular topic in news media, feeding heated ongoing policy and academic debates. Concerns and calls for further regulation and youth’s self-regulation are exacerbated when celebrities and popular public figures share statements and confessions about their own sexual lives at a young age. In this article, we study the discursive conditions of media coverage and the celebrity confessional as narratives of regulation and self-regulation. Using Billie Eilish’s statement about her self-perceived experience of harm from use of pornography during teenage life (13 December 2021), we study how global and national media outlets constructed Eilish’s confession in the light of broader concerns about children’s experiences with such online sexual content. This study enhances our understanding of how adolescents’ experiences of sexual content online is publicly shaped.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"228 1","pages":"2597-2619"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Harrison W See, Kjartan Ólafsson, Brian O’Neill, Lelia Green, Carmen Jacques, Kelly Jaunzems
{"title":"Do parents ‘know best’ when it comes to their teenaged children’s experiences of sexual content online?","authors":"Harrison W See, Kjartan Ólafsson, Brian O’Neill, Lelia Green, Carmen Jacques, Kelly Jaunzems","doi":"10.1177/14614448251333737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333737","url":null,"abstract":"In 2010, the EU Kids Online project, and aligned AU Kids Online study, interviewed one parent and one child (9–16) from 25,542 families across 26 countries. Information gathered included parents’ awareness of their child’s experiences of sexual content online. This dataset has since been updated by recent ethnographic work in Australia and Ireland, capturing parents’ approaches to managing their children’s (11–17) digital engagement with sexual content. Parents identified risks and benefits in their children’s encounters with adult content online. This article concludes that parents do not judge the efficacy of their digital parenting around preventing their child from seeing restricted 18+ content or, indeed, knowing whether their child has encountered sexual content online. Instead, they adopt a nuanced approach that reflects knowledge of their child and the child’s relative maturity, with a view to supporting their child’s progressive development towards full digital and sexual citizenship.","PeriodicalId":19149,"journal":{"name":"New Media & Society","volume":"65 1","pages":"2638-2656"},"PeriodicalIF":5.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144290214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}