Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors
Current child pornography laws in Australia extend to cases where minors transmit sexually explicit material of themselves or others via digital communication (‘sexting’). This is the first study examining attitudes of the Australian adult public regarding criminal laws that can apply to sexting by...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
University of Sydney, Institute of Criminology
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18114 |
| _version_ | 1848749651565477888 |
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| author | Blyth, C. Roberts, Lynne |
| author_facet | Blyth, C. Roberts, Lynne |
| author_sort | Blyth, C. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Current child pornography laws in Australia extend to cases where minors transmit sexually explicit material of themselves or others via digital communication (‘sexting’). This is the first study examining attitudes of the Australian adult public regarding criminal laws that can apply to sexting by minors. A sample of 285 Australian adults completed an online questionnaire that presented a scenario concerning adolescent sexting. Participants completed measures of perceived responsibility and deservingness of penalty for both the sext sender and recipient who, in some cases, also forwarded the sext. Overall, support for legal penalties for adolescent sexting was low, except in the case of non-consensual distribution of sexts. The results highlight the public’s concern with the non-consensual forwarding of sexts, providing support for calls to distinguish between consensual and non-consensual sexting in legislation and educational and public campaigns. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:24:20Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-18114 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:24:20Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | University of Sydney, Institute of Criminology |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-181142020-07-22T08:28:37Z Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors Blyth, C. Roberts, Lynne Current child pornography laws in Australia extend to cases where minors transmit sexually explicit material of themselves or others via digital communication (‘sexting’). This is the first study examining attitudes of the Australian adult public regarding criminal laws that can apply to sexting by minors. A sample of 285 Australian adults completed an online questionnaire that presented a scenario concerning adolescent sexting. Participants completed measures of perceived responsibility and deservingness of penalty for both the sext sender and recipient who, in some cases, also forwarded the sext. Overall, support for legal penalties for adolescent sexting was low, except in the case of non-consensual distribution of sexts. The results highlight the public’s concern with the non-consensual forwarding of sexts, providing support for calls to distinguish between consensual and non-consensual sexting in legislation and educational and public campaigns. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18114 University of Sydney, Institute of Criminology fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Blyth, C. Roberts, Lynne Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors |
| title | Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors |
| title_full | Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors |
| title_fullStr | Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors |
| title_full_unstemmed | Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors |
| title_short | Public Attitudes towards Penalties for Sexting by Minors |
| title_sort | public attitudes towards penalties for sexting by minors |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/18114 |