Non-Consensual Sharing of Sexts: Behaviours and Attitudes of Canadian Youth

MediaSmarts and researchers at University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work conducted this study to examine how attitudes, experiences, knowledge and moral beliefs of young people impact their decisions to share or not share sexts they have received. The findings are significant not only in helping us to understand the motivating factors behind teens’ decisions either to share or not share sexts without the original sender’s consent, but also to inform development of more effective interventions to discourage young people from sharing sexts non-consensually.