Let's Talk about Sext: How Adolescents Seek Support and Advice about Their Online Sexual Experiences
Abstract
We conducted a thematic content analysis of 4,180 posts by adolescents (ages 12-17) on an online peer support mental health forum to understand what and how adolescents talk about their online sexual interactions. Youth used the platform to seek support (83%), connect with others (15%), and give advice (5%) about sexting, their sexual orientation, sexual abuse, and explicit content. Females often received unwanted nudes from strangers and struggled with how to turn down sexting requests from people they knew. Meanwhile, others who sought support complained that they received unwanted sexual solicitations while doing so-to the point that adolescents gave advice to one another on which users to stay away from. Our research provides insight into the online sexual experiences of adolescents and how they seek support around these issues. We discuss how to design peer-based social media platforms to support the well-being and safety of youth.
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Teens most often encounter unwanted sexual solicitations from seemingly innocuous individuals they meet online or already know in person, rather than from overtly suspicious strangers.
“when in reality, teens most often encounter unwanted sexual solicitations from seemingly innocuous individuals they meet online [54, 92] or already know in person [13, 45, 75].”
From From Vulnerable to Resilient: Examining Parent and Teen Perceptions on How to Respond to Unwanted Cybergrooming Advances (2026) · cites this paper as [75]
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- Authors
- Razi, A., Badillo-Urquiola, K., & Wisniewski, P. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Central Florida (US)
- University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2020-04-21
- Pages
- 1-13
- OpenAlex
- W3031631137
- Cited by
- 89
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 22.24
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- William T. Grant Foundation (187941)
- National Science Foundation (IIP-1827700, IIS-1844881)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Keywords
- sexting, adolescents, sexual abuse, sexual orientation, explicit content, youth online safety, gender differences
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