Author Identifier
Debra Dudek: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2882-8830
Giselle Woodley: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7521-5001
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
New Media and Society
Volume
27
Issue
5
First Page
2457
Last Page
2472
Publisher
Sage
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
82286
Funders
Australian Research Council
Grant Number
ARC Number : DP190102435
Abstract
Harm—and the ways in which it is interpreted, negotiated, discussed, and unpacked by adolescents themselves—is a key term in almost all debates about young people’s experiences with online pornography. This essay situates the topic of this special issue—adolescents’ perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content—within a broader context of the discourses and practices that inform research in this field. We show how discourses of harm and risk circulate around the figure of the innocent child in need of protection and argue for more nuanced understandings of and research about childhood that take into account the lived experiences and perspectives of young people themselves. The papers in this special issue cover a range of academic perspectives and reflect diverse epistemological, methodological, and academic cultures. The special issue underscores the complex nature of the topic and the need for nuanced, rigorous, and robust empirical research.
DOI
10.1177/14614448251333746
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Comments
Chronaki, D., Dudek, D., & Woodley, G. (2025). Young people’s perceptions of harm from accessing online sexual content. New Media & Society, 27(5), 2457–2472. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251333746