Youth sexuality and sexual risk in a digital era (DIGISEX)

Large-scale societal discussions have changed the sexual landscape recent years, such as the #metoo movement and public debates about consent laws. A shift that particularly has affected youth sexuality is how digital media plays into sexual relations. On a positive note, digital media offers new opportunities for learning about sex and sexual socialization. Nevertheless, it has also become a new arena for sexual violations. From a societal perspective, it becomes crucial to understand how digital media’s simultaneous potential for opportunity and risk impacts youth sexual practices and the forms and scope of youth sexual violations. In DIGISEX, we ask how young people navigate this increasingly complex sexual terrain and what risks they encounter. To shed light on this new arena for youth sexuality and sexual violations, we will investigate how youths incorporate the new opportunities created by digital media in their sexual lives, the interplay between digital and physical sexuality, and how new practices may contribute to increased sexual risk. The study is in an unparalleled position to contribute new knowledge on this topic by combining two existing and high-quality datasets containing both information on youth digital sexuality and digital sexual violations. The project consists of three work packages (WPs). We start in WP1 by unpacking how youth conceptualize and perform sexuality in an increasingly digital world. In WP2, we home in on the dilemma between opportunity and risk concerning digital sexuality in the eyes of youths, as well as the social and cultural context they navigate. In WP3, we investigate different types of sexual violations to which youth are exposed, overlaps between physical and digital violations, and social variation in exposure. The overall objective of the project is to advance the understanding of the duality of digital media in youths’ sexual lives as a simultaneous space of opportunity and risk.

Large-scale societal discussions have changed the sexual landscape recent years, such as the #metoo movement and public debates about consent laws. A shift that particularly has affected youth sexuality is how digital media plays into sexual relations. On a positive note, digital media offers new opportunities for learning about sex and sexual socialization. However, it has also become a new arena for sexual violations. From a societal perspective, it becomes crucial to understand how digital media’s simultaneous potential for opportunity and risk impacts youth sexual practices and the forms and scope of youth sexual violations. To shed light on this new arena for youth sexuality and sexual violations, DIGISEX will investigate how youths incorporate the new opportunities created by digital media in their sexual lives, the interplay between digital and physical sexuality, and whether new practices contribute to increased sexual risk. The study will contribute knowledge on this topic by combining analyses of two existing and high-quality datasets among Norwegian youth containing qualitative and quantitative data on youth digital sexuality and digital sexual violations. We start in WP1 by unpacking how youth conceptualize and perform sexuality in an increasingly digital world. In WP2, we home in on the dilemma between opportunity and risk concerning digital sexuality in the eyes of youths, as well as the socio-cultural context of sexual risk and violations. In WP3, we investigate different types of sexual violations to which youth are exposed, overlaps between physical and digital violations, and social variation in exposure. DIGISEX is led by early-career researcher Lars Roar Frøyland, who have previously documented a capacity of delivering high-quality research. The remaining research team consists of both early career and highly qualified scholars within youth research, sexuality, and sexual violations with strong track records in their respective fields.