‘We Are Trying to Make Sense of Our Lives’: Health Promotion in the Context of Young People's Digital Sexual Environment

Issue Addressed

Young people's engagement with sexual content online has received ongoing attention in both policy and practice. However, there remains limited understanding of how health promoters can best engage with digital environments to support young people's learning about sex and relationships in the context of their existing digital practices.

Methods

Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with 22 young people aged 18–25 and 22 key informants specialising in relationships and sexuality education (RSE), sexual health and digital content design.

Results

Young people interact with digital sexual health content from a wide range of sources and platforms. This environment serves as an important space for self-exploration in relation to sex, relationships and identity that is situated in the broader context of young people's offline environment, community, and friendships.

Conclusions

Digital spaces support young people to develop skills and knowledge about sex, relationships and identity by providing access to diverse resources across various platforms and communication modes. Having a range of information and perspectives online enables young people to exercise their judgement, critically reflect and build their skills and knowledge in important ways.

So What?

To support young people's sexual health, it is necessary to understand the key elements of online engagement that help young people in building an understanding of sex and relationships. This includes an understanding of online health promotion as contributing to existing formal and informal sexual health messaging.