Close

Events

Teens, sexting and image-based sexual abuse: a child rights approach

Hosted by the Digital Futures for Children centre

In-person and online public event (Old Theatre, Old Building)

Speakers

Professor Lelia Green

Professor Jessica Ringrose

Dr Kim Sylwander

Giselle Woodley

Chair

Professor Sonia Livingstone

With the ubiquity of technological devices, young people are more visible and accessible than ever before, and they are encountering, using and producing an unprecedented amount of sexualised imagery.

Although evidence suggests that ‘sexting’ is considered a normal practice among teens, there are, nonetheless, inherent risks. Teens who sext run a range of legal, financial, health, educational and sociosexual risks, yet still they do it. Apart from image-based sexual harassment and abuse, teens also face emerging risks such as AI-informed deepfakes and sextortion. In this public event, four speakers will discuss empirical findings from three different countries: Australia, Sweden and the UK.

Meet our speakers and chair

Lelia Green is a professor of communications at the School of Arts and Humanities at Edith Cowan University, Australia. Leila has researched children’s digital media use since 2002, when her work was first funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC). As a co-investigator, Lelia is currently completing an ARC project on Perceptions of harm from adolescents accessing online sexual content. Lelia has authored, co-authored, and edited seven books, over 150 book chapters, and refereed articles.

Jessica Ringrose (@JessicaRingrose) is co-Director of the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity at IOE UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. Her research explores youth digital cultures, focusing on developing education to prevent tech-facilitated gender-based and sexual violence and misogyny. In 2020, she received the American Educational Research Association’s Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Award. Her latest book is Teens, Social Media & Image-Based Abuse.

Kim Sylwander is a postdoctoral researcher at the Digital Futures for Children centre at the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Kim’s research has focused on children, youth and media, specifically online hate, racism, sexuality, and online child sexual exploitation and abuse. She has worked for the UN, in civil society and academia and has served as a Government-appointed expert in inquiries on sexual exploitation and the effects of digital media on children in Sweden.

Giselle Woodley (@Zosogis) is a sexologist and PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University in Australia. Her thesis explored adolescents' perspectives on Sexually-Explicit Materials (SEM), including pornography, and their Relationships and Sexuality Education across various settings—home, school, and online. A prominent voice in the Australian media, Giselle regularly contributes insightful commentary on issues related to sexuality, sexting, consent and sexuality education.

Sonia Livingstone (@Livingstone_S) is a full professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. She has published 20 books and advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Council of Europe and UNICEF on media audiences, children and young people’s risks and opportunities, media literacy and rights in the digital environment. She directs the Digital Futures for Children centre.

More about this event

Join us on campus or register to watch the event online at LSE Live. LSE Live is the home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Digital Futures for Children centre (@MediaLSE) facilitates research for a rights-respecting digital world for children. This joint LSE and 5Rights research centre supports an evidence base for advocacy, facilitates dialogue between academics and policymakers, and amplifies children’s voices, following the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General comment No. 25.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEEvents

Join our mailing list

Sign up to receive email updates from LSE Events including the latest news and event announcements.

Live captions
Automated live captions are available at this live event. Please note that this feature uses Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology, or machine generated transcription and is not 100% accurate.

LSE Blogs
Many speakers at LSE events also write for LSE Blogs, which present research and critical commentary accessibly for a public audience. Follow British Politics and Policy, the Business Review, the Impact Blog, European Politics and Policy and the LSE Review of Books to learn more about the debates our events series present.

Photography

Photographs taken on behalf of LSE are often used on our social media accounts, website and publications. At events, photographs could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre, of speakers during the talk, and of audience members as they participate in the Q&A.

If you are photographed participating in an event Q&A but would not like your photograph to be stored for future use, please contact events@lse.ac.uk.

Podcasts
We aim to make all LSE events available as a podcast subject to receiving permission from the speaker/s to do this, and subject to no technical problems with the recording of the event. Podcasts are normally available 1 week after the event. Podcasts and videos of past events can be found online.

Social Media

Follow LSE public events on X for the latest updates on all our events and ticket releases. 

Livestreams and archive videos of past lectures are shared on our YouTube channel while event podcasts can be found on the LSE Player.

Event updates and other information about what’s happening at LSE can be found on our Facebook page and for live photos from events and around campus, follow us on Instagram. 

Attending our events in-person or online? Join the conversation using #LSEEvents.

Accessibility
If you are planning to attend this event and would like details on how to get here and what time to arrive, as well as on accessibility and special requirements, please refer to LSE Events FAQ.  LSE aims to ensure that people have equal access to these public events, but please contact the events organiser as far as possible in advance if you have any access requirements so that arrangements, where possible, can be made. If the event is ticketed, please ensure you get in touch in advance of the ticket release date. Access Guides to all our venues can be viewed online.

WIFI Access
LSE has now introduced wireless for guests and visitors in association with 'The Cloud', also in use at many other locations across the UK. If you are on campus visiting for the day or attending a conference or event, you can connect your device to wireless. See more information and create an account at Join the Cloud.
Visitors from other participating institutions are encouraged to use eduroam. If you are having trouble connecting to eduroam, please contact your home institution for assistance.
The Cloud is only intended for guest and visitor access to wifi. Existing LSE staff and students are encouraged to use eduroam instead.
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.
How can I attend? Add to calendar

This public event is free and open to all. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience.

For the in-person event: No ticket or pre-registration is required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For any queries see LSE Events FAQ.

For the online event: Registration for this event via LSE Live will open in mid April.

For any queries email events@lse.ac.uk.

Share

  Sign up for news about events