Sexual Victimization in the Digital Age: A Population-Based Study of Physical and Image-Based Sexual Abuse Among Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents increasingly use social media platforms, and these practices open up new forms of sexual victimization, in particular image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Few studies have examined prevalence rates and correlates of both physical sexual victimization (PSV) and these new forms of victimization in representative samples. We used data from 5,245 adolescent girls (53%) and 4,580 adolescent boys (47%) from the population-based Young in Oslo Study (mean age 17.1 years, SD = 0.9). Of all respondents, 2.9% had experienced IBSA, 4.3% PSV, and 1.7% both IBSA and PSV in the course of the previous 12 months. Multivariate analyses revealed that PSV victims, after control for other variables, had many characteristics described in previous studies of sexual victimization. Girls had higher prevalence rates than boys, many had been victims of other types of violence, and were part of peer groups with much use of alcohol and drugs. PSV victims also reported early intercourse onset and a higher proportion had been commercially sexually exploited. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents had higher victimization rates. Victims of both PSV and IBSA had a similar but even more pronounced profile. The IBSA victims were different: They lacked many of the traditional risk factors for sexual victimization, there were no significant gender differences in this group, and IBSA victims more often came from high socioeconomic backgrounds. In conclusion, we observe a reconfigured landscape of sexual victimization patterns among Norway adolescents due to their increasing participation on social media and digital platforms.

Predictors of Online Child Sexual Abuse in a U.S. National Sample

“…These findings are largely consistent with research on risk factors for sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, in general (Assink et al, 2019; Butler, 2013; López & Yeater, 2021). However, these demographic findings are contrary to some research specific to image-based sexual abuse that found no gender or sexual orientation differences in prevalence and higher rates among youth from higher SES backgrounds (Pedersen et al, 2023). These differences may be due to the more inclusive measure of OCSA used in the current study that encompasses certain non-image-based victimizations, such as some forms of sexual solicitations.…”

“…In contrast, a few recent studies found no gender difference in image-based sexual abuse victimization (Pedersen et al, 2023;Scott et al, 2022). Sexual minority adolescents have also been found to more often be victims of sexual victimization in general (Pedersen et al, 2023;Toomey & Russell, 2016), which may include online sexual abuse (Sklenarova et al, 2018;Van Ouytsel et al, 2019).…”

“…Just as female youth are at greater risk of offline or "traditional" sexual abuse (Assink et al, 2019), some studies find that girls are also more likely to experience online sexual solicitation (De Santisteban & Gámez-Guadix, 2018;Mitchell et al, 2014;Montiel et al, 2016;Sklenarova et al, 2018). In contrast, a few recent studies found no gender difference in image-based sexual abuse victimization (Pedersen et al, 2023;Scott et al, 2022). Sexual minority adolescents have also been found to more often be victims of sexual victimization in general (Pedersen et al, 2023;Toomey & Russell, 2016), which may include online sexual abuse (Sklenarova et al, 2018;Van Ouytsel et al, 2019).…”

“…Parental socioeconomic status (SES) may also influence risk for online sexual abuse. On the one hand, a recent study found that image-based sexual abuse victims (without in-person victimization) were more often from high SES backgrounds (Pedersen et al, 2023), perhaps because of more frequent internet usage among higher SES adolescents (Sklenarova et al, 2018). On the other hand, low parental SES is a marker of disadvantage, that may be associated with reduced social and economic resources, lower parental involvement and monitoring, greater family adversity, less effective parenting practices, and lower academic achievement (Bøe et al, 2014; Kalil & Ryan, 2020; Kotchick & Forehand, 2002; Roubinov & Boyce, 2017) that, in turn, could increase risk for online sexual abuse.…”

Did They Deserve It? Adolescents’ Perception of Online Harassment in a Real-Case Scenario

“…Interestingly, several studies on young victims of cyberbullying [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ] have also found that adolescents tend to use moral justification as a way to empathize with their aggressors to protect their self-esteem, which could occur in victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing. Cyberbullying and non-consensual sharing of intimate images occur more among adolescents and young adults than older adults, often with females as victims [ 45 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ], but non-consensual sharing of intimate images might be more evenly distributed among genders [ 55 , 56 ]. However, cyberbullying rates are related with the attended school class: as children move from primary school to middle and high school, the perpetration of cyberbullying decreases along with an increase in the ability to exert self-control [ 57 , 58 , 59 ].…”