Understanding and Combatting Youth Experiences of Image-Based Sexual Harassment and Abuse
BACKGROUND
Many researchers emphasise how ‘sexting’—i.e. the consensual exchange of sexual images—can be a
form of sexual expression and intimacy formation for teens (Burkett, 2015; O’Sullivan, 2014; Villacampa,
2017). Distinct from these consensual digital practices, image-based sexual harassment and abuse
describes a subset of non-consensual and harmful online behaviours that constitute as digital sexual
violence and require immediate intervention:
(1) Image-based sexual harassment (IBSH)
Image-based sexual harassment describes two forms of digital sexual violence: (a) unwanted sexual
images (e.g. cyberflashing or unsolicited dick pics), and (b) unwanted solicitation for sexual images
(McGlynn and Johnson, 2020). We define ‘images’ broadly to encompass all forms of visual content, such as
photographs, videos, live videos, chats, etc.
(2) Image-Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA)
Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) refers to the non-consensual recording, distribution, and/or threat of
distribution of nude or sexual images. Although sometimes referred to as ‘revenge porn’ in popular culture,
this term fails to account for the many different contexts in which IBSA can take place.
While these different forms of digital sexual violence are ‘new’ to the extent that technology enables
them (boyd, 2014), these practices are connected to the same unequal, hierarchical gender relations
as traditional forms of sexual violence (Henry and Powell, 2015; Powell and Henry, 2017). These forms
of digital sexual violence most often involve the harassment and abuse of women and girls (Dodge &
Spencer, 2018; Powell, 2010). Unfortunately, these practices are becoming increasingly common as 47% of
women aged 18 to 24 years reported receiving an unsolicited dick pic in a recent poll (YouGov, 2018), and
9% of girls in Plan UK’s study (2020) were asked to send intimate images of themselves and/or received
unwanted images during the first UK lockdown period in early 2020 alone.