Just because it’s public doesn’t mean it’s any of your business: Adults’ and children’s sexual rights in digitally mediated spaces

Abstract

This article engages with media responses to the 2015 Ashley Madison hack (which largely exposed the sexual details of adult heterosexual men) and the 2014 ‘Fappening’ hack (which exposed private sexual images of adult female celebrities). It draws on Petchesky’s concept of positive sexual rights and Warner’s framework of sexual ethics to reflect on the ways current educational and policy responses to ‘teen sexting’ (or sharing nude/semi-nude pictures) might change if young people’s sexual rights were recognized as being similar (if not the same) to those of the adult victims of the 2014 and 2015 hacks.

Keywords

Human rights sexting sexual ethics young people

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