Online Sexual Victimization among Middle School Students: Prevalence and Association with Online Risk Behaviors

Introduction

In Europe, 82% of minors use a social network (SN; Livingstone et al., 2011; Longobardi, Settanni, Fabris, & Marengo, 2020; Marengo, Longobardi, Fabris, & Settanni, 2018). Although SNs offer opportunities for social interaction, they also involve some risks, such as online sexual victimization (OSV) (Longobardi, Fabris, Prino, & Settanni, 2021). By the expression OSV we mean a wide range of behaviors that are unwanted by the young person and/or performed by an adult in an online context, such as exposure to sexual material, sexual pressure and online grooming, and requests to engage in sexual activity or talk or to provide personal sexual information (Wolak et al., 2006).

As many as 39% of teenagers are estimated to be at risk of OSV (Marengo, Settanni, & Longobardi, 2019; Montiel et al., 2016; Sklenarova et al., 2018), and the percentage seems to be higher for females than for males (Mitchell et al., 2007; Montiel et al., 2016; Longobardi et al., 2021; Zetterström Dahlqvist & Gillander Gådin, 2018). The literature examined different forms of OSV. For example, Madigan and colleagues (2018) found in their meta-analysis that about 20% and 12% of adolescents’ report experiences of unwanted online sexual exposure and solicitation, respectively, while a percentage between 14 and 24% may be at risk of online grooming by an adult (Montiel et al., 2016; Wachs et al., 2012).

Research seems to support the idea that online risky behaviors increase the risk of OSV. Online risk behaviors concern involvement in a number of situations that increase the likelihood of the occurrence of negative consequences to the self or others, including victimizations (Fabris, Marengo, Longobardi, & Settanni, 2020; Gámez-Gaudix et al., 2016; Lin, Liu, Niu, & Longobardi, 2020). The literature seems to identify at least three online risk behaviors that, in particular, seem to predict OSV among adolescents: sexting, indiscriminate expansion of SNs, and intimate and face-to-face relationships with strangers met online, which can increase the risk of OSV (Longobardi et al., 2021).

Sexting has been defined by Chalfen (2009) as the exchange of sexually explicit or provocative content (text messages, photos, and videos) via Internet-based technology, such as SNs and/or other online platforms. Sexting is currently considered regulatory behavior compared to adolescent sexual development; however, it can place the child in a context where forms of OSV can happen (Gámez-Gaudix & Mateos-Pérez, 2019; Wolak et al., 2018). For example, it is estimated that 12% of adolescents have reported forwarding a sext (i.e., a sexually explicit message/image/video sent by mobile phone) without consent, and more than 8% have had a sext forwarded without consent (Madigan et al., 2018). Sending nude photos could expose minors to victimization phenomena such as sextortion, i.e., the practice of demanding money or sexual favours from someone by threatening to reveal their sexual activity to others (Wolak et al., 2018). In this direction, some evidence from longitudinal studies, indicate that sexting predicts online sexual solicitation by adults (Gámez-Gaudix & Mateos-Pérez, 2019) and cyberbullying (Gámez-Gaudix & Mateos-Pérez, 2019; Van Ouytsel et al., 2019) in adolescents. These studies bring evidence to the fact that the voluntary creation of online sexual content (sexting) can pose an actual risk to the child, placing them in a context in which forms of OSV can occur.

Teenagers can use SNs to increase their popularity in their peer group, and the number of likes or followers on their social profiles can be used by teenagers as an indicator of their popularity among peers (Fabris et al., 2020; Longobardi et al., 2020). This could be one of the reasons that leads minors to indiscriminately extend their network of contacts, that is, by placing themselves in relation to a greater number of strangers and a wider audience of users who can also access personal information, thus resulting in an increased risk of OSV (De Santisteban & Gámez-Gaudix, 2017).

In this direction, several teens can interact with strangers known online. Motivations can be different, such as fun and the desire to meet new people or compensate for deficits in social relationships experienced in the real world (Peter et al., 2006). However, establishing intimate conversations or relationships with subjects known only online is recognized as a potential risk factor of OSV among adolescents (Ybarra et al., 2007), and early adolescents tend to be more inclined to establish online relationships with strangers (Peter et al., 2006).

However, in Europe, about 9% of children between the ages of 9 and 16 meet strangers known online, although the risk of victimization seems to be lower than expected (Cernikova et al., 2018; Dedkova et al., 2014; Livingston et al., 2011). Prentky and colleagues (2010) note that minors who met adults online and then met them offline were more likely to report a number of risky online behaviors that were associated with an OSV risk. OSV risk seems to increase with age (Mitchell et al., 2007; Wurtele & Millerr-Perrin, 2014). This is probably because adolescents develop more advanced technological skills than children and can access the online world with increasing autonomy.

Adolescents are also curious about sexual and sentimental issues and can explore these issues through SNs. In this sense, their immaturity, curiosity, and impulsivity could make them “easy prey” for online attackers (Wurtele & Kenny, 2010). All this can be even more significant in early adolescence, an especially delicate period of development, when adolescents’ social activity is increasingly independent from the family, and there is a greater focus on the peer group (Badenes-Ribera, Fabris, Gastaldi, Prino, & Longobardi., 2019; Marengo, Settanni, Fabris, & Longobardi, 2021; Settanni, Marengo, Fabris & Longobardi, 2018). However, studies specifically aimed at early adolescents are very scarce, particularly in Europe and the Mediterranean countries.

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of OSV in early adolescents and its correlation with risky online behaviors. Further, the study aims to examine how specific risky online behaviours influence the probability of being a victim of OSV.

Method

Results

The descriptive statistics and correlations among the study variables are reported in Table 1. Table 2 presents the incidence of the different forms of OSV: almost 4 out of 10 students reported having been the victim of at least one form of OSV in the last year. This figure is significantly higher for males than females. In the whole sample, the most frequent kind of OSV was unwanted exposure to sexual content, followed by sexual pressure, and online grooming. The least common form of OSV was sexual coercion. Males reported a higher incidence of all forms of OSV. With respect to the relative frequencies, females and males showed a very similar pattern.

Table 3 shows the results of the logistic regressions conducted to analyse how age, gender, and online risk behaviors affect the probability of being a victim of different kinds of OSV. We initially tested the models including the all of the two-way interaction terms between the predictors. However, the analyses revealed that no interaction terms do exert an influence on outcome variables, hence we report analyses for regression models non including interaction terms.

Older students were more likely to be involuntarily exposed to sexual content. Also, males were more likely to be victims of sexual coercion, and unwanted exposure to sexual content. Among online behaviors, sexting and exhibitionism represented a major risk factor for all types of OSV. The indiscriminate expansion of one’s network increases the likelihood of being the victim of online grooming by an adult, and unwanted exposure to sexual content. Lastly, intimate relationships with strangers met online increases the probability of being a victim of sexual pressure, and online grooming by adults. Overall, sexting and exhibitionism and indiscriminate expansion of one’s network significantly increase the likelihood of having been the victim of at least one OSV in the past year.

Discussion

The data show that around 40% of the examined sample reported the risk of at least one form of OSV, a figure that appears similar to studies conducted in both early and late adolescents in European (Montiel et al., 2016; Pereda et al., 2014; Riley et al., 2020) and non-European Western countries (Mendez-Lopez & Pereda, 2019; Pinto Cortez et al., 2020). Unwanted exposure to sexual materials is the most widespread form of OSV in our sample, similar to that found in a Spanish sample (Montiel et al., 2016). However, the prevalence of unwanted exposure to sexual materials and unwanted sexual solicitation tends to be significantly higher in our study than that observed by other studies on average (Madigan et al., 2018; Montiel et al., 2016). Our data does not help us understand whether this high percentage actually depends on focusing on early adolescents, rather than on a wider age range, or whether cultural factors not examined here contribute. Of our sample, 14% claim to have been victims of online grooming by an adult, and this figure seems to be in line with what Montiel and colleagues (2016) found in Spanish adolescents, while a German study, with adolescents between 12 and 16 years old, found a higher percentage (Wachs et al., 2012). Globally, this may indicate the need for further studies with adolescents in this developmental age. In convergence with the previous literature (Longobardi et al., 2021) in this age group, risky online behaviors predicted various kinds of OSV. In particular, sexting and exhibitionism and indiscriminate expansion of one’s network increased the risk of being subjected to at least one form of victimization.

In line with the emerging trend in the literature (Mitchell et al., 2001; Wurtele & Miller-Perrin, 2014), our data suggest that as youth grow older the risk of being involved in OSV increases. However, this figure should be read with caution, as not all studies agree (Madigan et al., 2018; Wachs et al., 2012). In fact, in accordance with our data, it is possible that, growing up, adolescents use the web more frequently and with less supervision by adults, potentially resulting in an (increased) risk of OSV. Yet, as some suggest, older adolescents may be more active in seeking explicit sexual material, and some forms of victimization, such as unsolicited exposure to sexual material, may not be perceived as victimization or “unwanted” or “unsolicited” behavior (Bleakley et al., 2011; Madigan et al., 2018). More research will therefore be needed on this point.

In contrast to the expectations, in early adolescents from our sample, males were more at risk of OSV. This finding is worth paying attention to in future research. It may be, for instance, that boys in early adolescence are more interested than girls in sexual matters, and this increases their risky online behavior and therefore their possible exposure to OSV. More generally, some studies suggest that males engage more in risky behaviors online, particularly those that are sexual in nature (Baumgartner et al., 2012; Peter & Valkenburg, 2006). In this direction, a meta-analysis by Madigan and colleagues (2018) found that males are more at risk than females of receiving unwanted online sexual solicitations. According to the authors, these gender differences can be attributed to the risks associated with the types of chats and websites that males consult more frequently than females.

However, this hypothesis requires more detailed study in future research. In Europe, early adolescent girls seem less likely than boys to engage in more frequent use of social media around the age of 11, though as they age (around 14–15), girls seem to report overuse of social media more frequently on average compared to boys (Craig et al., 2020). In this way, if girls - as they age - may be more interested in online activities and more prone to developing problematic use of social media, it is possible that they become more at risk of online harassment than boys (Craig et al., 2020). Furthermore, although girls are less prone than boys to frequent contact with strangers, the association between cyber-victimization and contact with strangers seems to be stronger for girls in several European countries (Craig et al., 2020). However, this figure deserves further investigation.

In conclusion, our study offers support for the hypothesis that risky online behaviours tend to promote a context in which forms of OSV can occur among early adolescents. This is an important aspect to take into consideration, not only because the Internet is a preponderant element in the daily reality of adolescents, but also because early adolescence is a critical period for the psychological development of individuals and forms of victimization can negatively affect the psychological adjustment of adolescents.

Limitations and Outlook

Our study has some limitations. Its cross-sectional nature limits the interpretation of the results in terms of linear causality, and the small sample size limits the generalizability of the results. Further, we used only self-report instruments, so the responses may have been affected by bias related to social desirability, retrieving memories, and to the understanding of the text. Future studies should, therefore, conduct longitudinal research with larger and representative samples of the adolescent population, and integrate data from different sources. In addition, our study was only interested in OSV, although research indicates the risk of multiple victimizations in adolescents (Montiel et al., 2016; Wachs et al., 2012). Therefore, in addition to OSV, future studies will be able to integrate other forms of online victimization that have not been considered in this research. Finally, future research will be able to make a greater contribution to defining whether early adolescence is a more risky period of development than others. Current research, in fact, has focused on adolescents without distinguishing between early and late adolescence. Therefore, comparisons between different age groups are encouraged. In the same direction, cross-cultural studies will help us understand whether the high percentage of OSV in our sample reflects an increased risk in early adolescents or the effect of cultural factors.

Our data encourages the need for prevention strategies aimed at reducing the risk of OSV in early adolescents. If training and informing parents and operators working in contact with adolescents is necessary, we believe it is important to refine prevention strategies aimed directly at adolescents. In particular, it is important to promote knowledge about the risks of SNs and to develop reflection on a more aware and secure use of the Internet and SNs (Wurtele & Miller-Perrin, 2014). More generally, considering the continuity between offline and online victimization experiences, we suggest the potential to develop evidence-based prevention programs based on an integrated approach involving online and offline risk factors (Finkelhor et al., 2020).

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article