Abstract
Adolescents’ problematic use of the internet and the risk of sexual online victimization are an increasing concern among families, researchers, professionals and society. This study aimed to analyze the interplay between adolescents’ addiction to social networks and internet, body self-esteem and sexual–erotic risk behavior online: sexting, sextortion and grooming. While sexting refers to the voluntary engagement in texting sexual–erotic messages, sextortion and grooming are means of sexual–erotic victimization through the use of the internet. Participants were 1763 adolescents (51% girls), aged 12 to 16 years (M = 14.56; SD = 1.16), from public (n = 1068; 60.60%) and private (n = 695; 39.40%) high schools in the Basque Country (Spain). We carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) using Mplus to assess the mediating effects of body self-esteem in the relationship between addiction to social media and internet and sexual–erotic risk behavior. The results showed that internet addiction predicts online sexual victimization; specifically, the best predictors of sexting, sextortion and grooming victimization were symptoms of internet addiction and geek behavior. Body self-esteem and sexting mediated the relationship between internet addiction and sexual online victimization in adolescents. These results highlight the importance of attending to adolescents’ mental health regarding their online behavior, considering the risk and protective factors involved, due to its close association with online sexual victimization.
Highlights
The indirect effect of addiction symptoms on grooming victimization was partially mediated by body satisfaction. This means that adolescents with problematic internet use and feeling dissatisfied with their body may be searching for external approval in social networking platforms and chat rooms, which makes them an easy target for online sexual victimization. These results provide additional evidence to that found in previous studies, that have identified addiction and social networking, body dissatisfaction and sexting as potential risk factors of online sexual victimization separately [18,23,34,40,43]
The findings of this study extend previous literature, providing a novel approach which analyzes addiction to the internet and social networking as a potential risk factor for online sexual victimization in adolescence, considering the mediating role of body selfesteem and sexting
Individuals who engage in addictive internet use increase their risk of sextortion and grooming victimization, while body dissatisfaction and frequent sexting practices aggravate the effect
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Internet and social media use has grown intensely in recent times, which has facilitated the development of a unique way of communication through information and communications technology (ICT) [1]. Social interactions online evolve into a different paradigm, where ICT users enjoy its many advantages while encountering new threats, unknown to analogic relationships [2]. There have been unprecedented problems, such as internet addiction or online victimization, which emerged as a result of the problematic use of internet as a novel medium for social interaction. Research has identified and thoroughly studied the impact of problematic internet use on psychosocial health and well-being in recent decades [3]
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