Teens, Social Media and Image-Based Abuse

“This landmark study is vital reading for everyone interested in understanding young people’s experiences of image-based sexual harassment and abuse and the steps we can take to reduce its prevalence and harms.”

— Clare McGlynn, Professor of Law, Durham University, UK

“This book’s rich accounts of young people’s digital lives, honestly told in their own voices, will surely fuel improvements by regulators and industry. If not, we are all culpable.”

— Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology, LSE, UK

“Teens, Social Media, and Image-Based Abuse provides an unapologetic, and at times challenging, insight into the real lives of young people as they navigate sexual safety in a digital world.”

— Anastasia Powell, Professor of Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University, Australia

“A must-read for scholars, parents, and policymakers committed to fighting sexual inequality and online abuse.”

— Alice E. Marwick, Associate Professor of Communication, University of North Carolina, USA and Director of Research at the Data & Society Research Institute

“Highly readable and informative, it will change the way you think about the social media landscape.”

— Tanya Horeck, Professor of Film and Feminist Media Studies, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Capturing the views of nearly 500 young people from across the UK, this book offers an in-depth look at how teens experience image-based abuse. The ways teens use social media, how they produce, consume, and share sexual images, and how they understand and respond to harmful digital content and interactions are explored. Working across a wide range of schools, the research shows how image-based sexual harassment and abuse is a society wide problem but happens in culturally and context specific ways.  We offer recommendations for a multifaceted approach to improve tech regulation, the law, and education that prioritises children’s’ rights.

Jessica Ringrose is Professor of Sociology of Gender and Education at University College London, UK, where she co-directs the UCL Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity. 

Kaitlyn Regehr is Associate Professor and Programme Director of Digital Humanities at University College London, UK.