ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses young people’s perceptions and experiences of non-consensual sexting (including pressured, coerced and unwanted sexting). Most participants constructed a heteronormative gender power dynamic in which they attributed non-consensual sexting practices to the nature of adolescent masculine and feminine (hetero)sexuality. I note how young people perceived non-consensual sexting as an issue facing girls in particular. I explore how the social landscape of risk and reward in youth sexting culture shaped some of the girls’ accounts of their experiences both of pleasurable and non-consensual sexting. Their accounts suggest that the potential pleasures and pains of sexting are shaped by the norms and meanings within their youth cultural contexts, in which girls are to be responsive to the needs and desires of boys, while managing the risks they face of stigma and shame for overt sexual and bodily expression. I reflect upon the meaning of consent within youth sexting culture and the implications of young people’s normalisation of non-consensual practices.
