How Do Teens Feel After Sexting?
In our study, we also newly focused on the feelings that sexting evokes. We asked adolescents to rate how “happy” and how “upset” they felt after sexting.
At least once a month, 26.5% of adolescents (21.6% of girls and 31.5% of boys) feel happy after receiving the expected message. In contrast, 33.8% feel upset (44.1% of girls and 23.3% of boys). Half of the girls (51.7%) reported that they never feel happy after receiving such a message (compared to 36.9% of boys). Only 16.4% of girls never feel upset, compared to 30.2% of boys.
When it comes to receiving unexpected sexual messages, 10. 2% of adolescents feel happy at least once a month (6.5% of girls and 14.8% of boys) and 45.3% of adolescents feel upset at least once a month (53.2% of girls and 35.5% of boys). Nearly three-quarters of girls (71.3%) never feel satisfied after receiving unexpected news (compared to 56.8% of boys).
In contrast, 20.3% of adolescents never feel upset (17.2% of girls and 24.2% of boys).
For sending, we found no significant differences in feelings between girls and boys. At least once a month, 34.7% of adolescents feel satisfied after sending a message (29.5% of girls and 39.4% of boys). 17.8% of adolescents feel upset (19.1% of girls and 16.5% of boys).
Why do girls more often feel upset than boys? The explanation may lie in the different social expectations we place on girls and boys in relation to sexting. While boys often see sexting as a joke or a normal part of communication, girls face a double standard:
- If they do not participate in sexting, they may be labeled “prude” or “uninteresting.”
- If they do sext, they are often labelled promiscuous, which is perceived negatively among their peers.
Another important phenomenon is ‘dickpics’ - unexpected messages containing a photograph of a penis, often without the recipient's prior consent. As qualitative research shows, women are significantly more likely to encounter this type of message, describing it as a “part and parcel of the experience of being a woman online,” although it does evoke strong negative feelings (Amundsen, 2020).