Houck and colleagues argued that flirtatious phone messages in early adolescence may be a co-occurring sexual harm they say the use of cell phone technology for ‘sexting’, or ‘sharing nudes’ shows a weak correlation with other adolescent sexual activities, including unprotected sex. However, in cases where girls’ digital interactions were inappropriately shared or misrepresented, social tagging was perceived by girls as a disempowering public transgression. Ringrose and Dobson showed that social media ‘tagging’ of images is important to adolescent peer recognition. Older teens (17 year olds) most commonly reported sending a sexually explicit image with text, and one in six claimed to have received a sexually explicit image from someone they know. These authors noted the prevalence of sexting amongst the 12–17 age range was 4% of all cell-owning teens with little difference in gender. Lenhart’s survey in the USA found that legislatures in some states were considering downgrading the charges for creating or trading sexually suggestive images of minors by text from felonies to misdemeanours. Recently, the national press debated whether it was fair, suggesting that ‘making mistakes’ is part of growing up. In the UK, the Sexual Offences Act (2003) may not have anticipated the criminalisation of adolescents due to sexting. The idea that sexting might be harmful is controversial. However, adolescents are getting steadily more involved as they grow in age. Doring’s comprehensive review included 50 studies from Europe and USA and found that whilst the emergence of sexting has been viewed as mainly a youth phenomenon, sexting is also commonplace amongst adults. Sexting has arisen during the twenty-first century as the distribution of self-produced cell phone images has become a regular activity which can include images of a sexualised nature. The UK government and reputable independent organisations have recently produced guidance on the safe use of social media, suggesting the potential benefits and risks for adolescent health and wellbeing. Literature from UK, Europe and USA indicate that sexting is a popular activity that might have profound consequences for some young people. The international literature exploring the impact of sexting and social media on adolescent health has grown in recent years. Globally, protecting children and young people from potentially ‘harmful sexual behaviour’ (HSB) is a public health concern. This may, in turn, better define this important nursing contribution to public health. Improving PHNs ability to promote digital safety through better understanding of technology use among young people is good safeguarding practice. However, they are not always confident in dealing with the issue. They have some knowledge of sexting as a possible signifier of abusive behaviour. PHNs have a role to play in advising young people on digital safety, but findings of the study show that their role is not fully realised. They were not confident about discussing sexting with young people, even though some PHNs had done so in light of concerns about potential child sexual exploitation. PHNs’ knowledge was informed by media reports that supported their beliefs about young peoples’ vulnerability to risk-taking sexual behaviour. PHNs regarded sexting as a contemporary ‘normalised’ practice that takes place in what young people consider to be trusting relationships. From the entire data set, thirteen critical incidents were identified of which nine were deemed relevant for reporting in this paper. Data were analysed through thematic analysis, and managed through the use of NViVo 11 software. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with PHNs in a region of England. MethodĪ qualitative study was undertaken using the Critical Incident Technique. This study explored PHNs’ knowledge and confidence in addressing the issue among young people. Public health nurses (PHNs) could offer guidance to children and young people on digital safety, yet little is known about their role in this regard. The background literature indicates that sexting might have adverse psychosocial consequences for some young people who share partially nude images (‘selfies’). Globally, the potentially harmful effects of using cell phone technology for ‘sexting’ among young people, is a public health concern.
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