Attitudes to sexting amongst post-primary pupils in Northern Ireland: a liberal feminist approach

Abstract

This study focuses on sexting amongst young people in Northern Ireland about which there is, as yet, very little qualitative research. To address the gap, and using a liberal philosophical feminist framework, focus group interviews were conducted with seventeen (ten girls and seven boys) 16-17-year-olds to explore their views on sexting. The young people in this study regard sexting as normal behaviour and report that it is more likely to be boys who pressure girls for a picture, a common finding in sexting research. Unlike the literature, however, this study found that girls also instigate sexting and put pressure on boys to send pictures. Despite this finding, there is still an unequal relationship between girls and boys largely because of the objectification of girls (and, rarely, boys).

The challenges and opportunities of conducting PhD participatory action research on sensitive issues: Young people and sexting

“…It focuses on a girl who takes a picture of herself in school and sends it to a boy. The story continues with the picture being distributed to Megan's peers and teacher during a lesson (see York et al, 2021, for a critique on the assumptions of the film). Because we were unable to find a similar film for boys, the researcher self-authored a short age-appropriate vignette entitled 'Peter's Story'.…”

“…Because recruitment in schools was so low, on the suggestion of the third author (and second supervisor), we decided to switch from schools to youth clubs where a Young People's Participatory Group (YPPG) was formed. They were asked to respond to a number of participatory methods: vignettes describing sexting situations; sexually suggestive pictures of adolescents; and a widely used school-based video resource on sexting called 'Megan's Story' (for a detailed account of these resources and young people's response to them, see York et al, 2021).…”

Sexting and institutional discourses of child protection: The views of young people and providers of relationship and sex education

“…Teachers are not comfortable teaching about sex and sexuality, and the focus tends to be biological and proscriptive. The result is that young people are inadequately prepared to engage with issues such as sexting, sexualities, sexual exploitation and violence, and its prevalence in online environments (Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children & Young People, 2009; York, 2019). Further, Northern Ireland is a conservative and religious society, whose Christian values strongly influence how RSE is taught, preventing open and inclusive dialogue about sex and sexualities (McBride & Schubotz, 2017).…”

“…There is very little research on young people’s attitudes to and experiences of sex in Northern Ireland (McBride & Schubotz, 2017; York, 2019; Templeton et al ., 2020), and none on how, what we call here ‘stakeholder organisations’, contribute to the teaching of RSE in secondary schools. We present research from four such stakeholder organisations (SOs) and three pastoral care co‐ordinators 1 (PCCs) on their approaches to sexting.…”

“…We present research from four such stakeholder organisations (SOs) and three pastoral care co‐ordinators 1 (PCCs) on their approaches to sexting. We also draw on data from young people who took part in focus group interviews for this research (see York, 2021 for a full account of young people’s attitudes to sexting). While sexting is a mainstream activity amongst young people in Northern Ireland, as elsewhere, the predominant discourse of the SOs, in accordance with the values of the schools, is of child safety and protection, and the proscription, consequently, of sexual activities.…”