How a young person feels about themselves – let’s call it their awareness of dignity – will affect how they act in relationships. If they have few opportunities to socialise with others their age because of disabilities, learning difficulties or responsibilities at home, they tend to look online for love and admiration more than other teens do. The drive to belong and be loved is so powerful that safety rules are forgotten.
The role of mental health
Mental health and emotions are strong drivers of all we do. For example, people with an eating disorder are more than three times as likely to share explicit images than teens without difficulties.
Isolation or feeling alone can also lead teens to look for social life online. Young carers, for instance, are twice as likely to share these images than teens with no responsibilities or additional needs. They feel ‘noticed’, and some see it as a gateway in to the teenage social and romantic life they crave.
Others look to their online life to compensate for their real-life struggles. Some teenagers simply believe sharing nude images of themselves is required in a relationship if you want to keep your partner.
Why young people ‘sext’
Sharing explicit images or ‘sexting’ can occur as a result of being pressured or blackmailed into it. Those most likely to say this happened to them are those with an eating disorder, young carers, those with autism and those in care.
Also, we know that over half the young people with hearing loss who shared an image said they were pressured or blackmailed to do it. An example is thinspiration ‘coaches’ who exert incredible pressure on young people to be thinner. As a part of this, they demand rigid control and make their target send images every day. Other influencers pressure boys to bulk up their bodies and send photos to illustrate this.
Additionally, those requesting images may claim it is a part of a relationship, saying loving things to get more images.