ABSTRACT
In deeply digitalised societies, ‘sexual reputations’ are seen to be most ‘threatened’. Digital technologies such as smartphone cameras and social media platforms can capture and distribute moments that damage people’s sexual reputations and statuses. In this chapter, we explore how young people’s mediated sexual intimacies are increasingly visible, mainly because of the emergence of popular visual social media (e.g., Instagram and Snapchat). Relying on visual research materials that young people between 13 and 20 years old produced during ethnographic research, we are particularly concerned with how increased visibility to unanticipated audiences has made young people more aware of the importance of a good digital reputation and has initiated more careful negotiations of sexual morality to protect their digital reputations. Our key finding is that managing a reputation is an intensive moral negotiation that is defined by various cultural discourses (e.g., gender, ethnicity, religiosity, sexuality). Moreover, we conclude that digital reputation can cause reputational harm to those young people that are not conforming to the sexual norms of their peer groups, social and family ties, and wider culture and society.
