Sexting and the experience of non-consensual dissemination of sexts. The moderator role of self-objectification

Non-consensual dissemination of sexual materi als – or sexts – via technology represents a crime with psychological and social consequences for the victims, mostly women. Commonly, non-consensual dissemination of sexts results from sexting, i.e., the practice of sharing sexually explicit materials via mobile and internet technologies. The literature so far has provided inconsistent results on the implication of this practice, and it remains unclear under which conditions sexting may represent a risk for suffering non-consensual dissemination of sexts. Based on objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), we investigated whether the relationship between sexting and experiences of non-consensual dissemination of sexts in young women (N = 351) would be moderated by self objectification, i.e., the consideration of themselves as a sexual object rather than a fully human being. Overall, results revealed that the link between sexting behaviors and experiences of non-consensual dissemination of sexts was significant only for women with high levels of self-objectification, suggesting that women who reduce themselves to sexual objects were more likely to have experienced non-consensual dissemination of sexts due to sexting behaviors. Implications of results are discussed.