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Blurred Lines? Responding to ‘Sexting’ and Gender-based Violence among Young People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2014

Anastasia Powell  and
Nicola Henry
Anastasia Powell*
Affiliation:
RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nicola Henry
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Dr Anastasia Powell, Lecturer, Justice and Legal Studies, RMIT University, Building 37, Level 4, 411 Swanston Street, Melbourne, VIC. 3000, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The emerging phenomenon of youth ‘sexting’ presents a range of unique legal, policy and educative challenges. In this article we consider four key issues in recent responses to youth sexting behaviours: (1) the definitional dilemmas surrounding the term ‘sexting’; (2) the inadequacy of existing legislative frameworks for responding to these behaviours; (3) the problematic messages conveyed in anti-sexting campaigns; and (4) the relative silence around gender-based violence in non-consensual and abusive encounters. We argue that the non-consensual creation and distribution of sexual images has largely been framed in public debates as a problem of youth naiveté, with the effect of censuring young women's ‘risky’ sexual behaviour, and leaving unproblematised gender-based violence. We suggest that more nuanced understandings of sexting that distinguishes between the consensual and non-consensual creation and distribution of sexual images must inform legal, policy and education-based prevention responses to the misuse of new technologies.

Keywords

sextingyouthsexualitygenderviolencetechnology
Type
Articles
Information
Children Australia , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 119 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014 

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