Teenage Sexual Development and the Internet's Role

Introduction: Teens, Peers, and the Internet

Teenagers have always learned about sex from their peers as well as their parents and teachers. However, the Internet is another easily accessible source of information that provides uncensored and often extreme images on which very young adolescents may model their sexual selves. According to a 2011 article in New York Magazine entitled "They Know What Boys Want," every one of the students interviewed by the reporter said he or she had seen "inappropriate material" online (Morris, 2011, p. 2). Many of the girls reproduced the professional, pornographic sexual images they saw online in their own selfies, which they posted on Facebook and other social media platforms. Even when teens express disgust at such images, those pictures clearly provide a model for how to present themselves sexually — one that teenagers are apt to mimic as a rite of passage.

Peer Pressure, Gender Differences, and Online Norms

Interestingly, in a study by Nahom et al. (2001), males rather than females were found to be more consistent in following through with their resolve to use condoms, although girls seemed to perceive more peer pressure to engage in sexual activity. The sense of what is normal and what other people are doing can have a powerful influence on adolescents, and the Internet can act as another form of such pressure, even normalizing behaviors that would have been considered relatively extreme in previous eras.

"The girls know to be wary of strangers on the Internet — but they're also wary of how the web is affecting the boys they might actually want to date," and according to a number of the girls interviewed, "with certain guys, they'll see something on the Internet and then they'll want their girlfriend to do it" (Morris, 2011, p. 3). Several girls attributed this to the fact that males are more sexualized than females and more inclined toward explicit sexual behavior. However, in light of the Nahom et al. (2001) findings, it may also be that males engage in these behaviors simply because they believe they "should," based on what they have seen online.

Normalization of Risky Sexual Behavior

Sexual experiences in which risky behaviors are normalized between partners have been found to overcome the earlier resolve of teens to resist such advances (Nahom et al., 2001). Similarly, even though teens may express disgust at what they see on the Internet, the apparently undeniable evidence that such behaviors exist and are widespread suggests that a perceived barrier has been broken. Even the teens themselves seem to sense that media influences them. "I think they're pressured by the Internet… When you see some of those things, you actually get a negative mind," said one girl, commenting on the common phenomenon of boys asking for naked photographs (Morris, 2011, p. 3).

Even girls who do not indulge their boyfriend's fantasies are frequently the subject of rumors. One girl in the New York Magazine article had a boyfriend who claimed she had "done it" even though she had not — which generated just as much social misery for her as it would have for a girl who had actually been sexually active. This illustrates how adolescent sexual norms are increasingly shaped not by direct experience but by perception and online culture.

References

Growing evidence links sexting to teenagers' sexual activity; link to risky behavior less clear. (2015). Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 47, 51–52. doi:10.1363/475157_1

Morris, A. (2011). They know what boys want. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/news/features/70977/

Nahom, D., Wells, E., Gillmore, M. R., Hoppe, M., Morrison, D. M., Archibald, M., Murowchick, E., Wilsdon, A., & Graham, L. (2001). Differences by gender and sexual experience in adolescent sexual behavior: Implications for education and HIV prevention. Journal of School Health, 71(4), 153–158.