Swipes, dates and sexts, the sexuality of the French continues and is also reinvented in the digital space. And researchers are closely interested in this evolution of sexual behavior, as shown an Inserm survey published on November 13, 2024. Conducted over a period of five years, it covers a sample of 31,518 individuals representative of the population aged 15 to 89 living in France. This very comprehensive survey – the sexuality of the French has not been explored to this extent by researchers since 2006 – offers a map of the sexuality of the French. It therefore includes sexual behavior in digital spaces, including dating applications, but also a practice that is becoming more and more widespread among the population: sexting.
Unpublished figures on the prevalence of sexting
Sexting is the contraction of sex and texting. It means “sending, receiving or transmitting sexually explicit messages or nude, partially nude or sexually suggestive digital images of oneself or others via a cell phone, e-mail, the Internet or a social network. Sexting can take the form of text messages but also images and videos.
The scientific literature highlights two forms of sexting. On the one hand, the agreed exchange between two partners of media content of a sexual nature. It is simply the extension into the digital world of a facet of adult sexual behavior. This form of digital sexuality between partners can also have positive effects on their intimate relationships.
There is also non-consensual sexting, which falls into the category of digital sexual violence and which is punished by article 226-2-1 of the Penal Code. In this form of sexting, people engage in sending sexual content or encourage others to do so with malicious intentions and may also misappropriate such content. The best-known example of non-consensual sexting is what is commonly called “dick picking”, which is the sending of a man’s genitals, most often to a woman. But there are other forms of online sexual violence such as revenge pornwhich consists of taking revenge on a person by making pornographic content containing the latter public, with the aim of humiliating them. This content may be produced with or without the consent of the interested party, but is distributed without their consent.
A common risky practice among young people
One of the striking results of the survey conducted by Inserm is that sexting behavior is becoming increasingly widespread among young adults. In the general population, 13.8% of women and 17.9% of men aged 18 to 89 have sent sexts in their lifetime. Among young people, the practice is much more common: among 18-29 year olds, 36.6% of women and 39.6% of men have already sent an intimate image during their life, while 47.8% of women and 53.6% of men in this age group have already received it. This survey also addresses the issue of consent in sexting. The results show that 54.8% of women and 68.7% of men explicitly gave consent to receive a sexual image. On the other hand, 16.6% of women and 25% of men say they have not asked themselves about this question, while 28.7% of women and 6.3% of men say they have not consented to receiving such images. .
With regard to digital sexual violence linked to sexting, in particular the unsolicited receipt of intimate or sexual messages or images and the unknowing distribution of intimate images, 13.1% of women and 12.8% of men say they have been confronted with this negative experience once in their life. These figures are particularly alarming among young people aged 18 to 29: 33.2% of women and 24.7% of men in this age group report having already experienced this type of situation.
The figures from this Inserm survey on sending and receiving sexts are fairly consistent with what we can observe in the scientific literature. According to a meta-analysis bringing together 50 international studies, 38.3% of young adults have already sent a sext and 41.5% have received one, which places the practices of the French in the world average. The same meta-analysis also estimates that 15% of adults have already forwarded a message of a sexual nature without the consent of the person concerned. This type of sending is associated to a reduction in the quality of mental health and in particular symptoms of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.
To better understand the reasons for these sending of photos of a sexual nature without consent, we can rely on an investigation carried out this time by Belgian researchers on a sample of 218 adults from Belgium. Among them, 169 said they had received a sext without first consenting, and 63% then forwarded the sext without the consent of the person who sent it. According to the authors, sending non-consensual sexts is mainly predicted by receiving non-consensual sexts. These transfers would be influenced by impulsive decisions and by social mechanisms, such as negative attitudes towards sexting or social pressure encouraging the dissemination of these sexualized photos, often with the aim of fueling rumors or gossip.
Sexuality education as a safeguard against the risks of sexting
One of the first levers to limit the impact of non-consensual sexting is the implementation of appropriate legislation to condemn this transmission behavior and clear information on the penalties incurred by the perpetrators of these non-consensual transfers. In France, authors who transmit sexual content without a person’s knowledge as well as all those who relay content, images, videos or remarks of a sexual nature risk two years of imprisonment and a fine of 60,000 euros. To prevent non-consensual sexting behavior, another lever can be technological with the provision of a digital watermark system allowing the sender to mark the name of the receiver in the content sent. In the event of transfer, the malicious receiver can more easily be identified and therefore blamed when a sexual image or video is distributed in a non-consensual manner.
Beyond legislative and technological measures, education about emotional life, relationships and sexuality remains an essential lever for reducing the risks of sexual violence linked to sexting. If young people are not completely naive about the dangers of this practice, it is important that we teach them more clearly about consent, the risks of certain sexual behaviors in the digital world as well as their rights in terms of digital citizenship.
This is precisely the purpose of the project program for education in relational, emotional life and sexuality (EVRAS) supported by the general directorate of school education. It constitutes a real opportunity to fight against sexual and gender-based violence, particularly those occurring in digital spaces such as non-consensual sexting. However, this program is already the target of virulent criticism from ultra-conservatives, even before its publication. The unstable political context also endangers this project. It is important to go beyond ideological debates to support this program and put an end to online sexual violence, which today affects 1 in 8 people in France.
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