Sexting, Age and Digital Vulnerabilities

Despite popular misconception it is not only young people that are sharing nude pictures and videos. There are a number of studies targeted towards the younger generation about their sexting, but few on older age-groups. In general, younger people take more risk than older people, and some seem to care less about possible negative consequences. For this study we commissioned a market research company to collect data from a national population, with a representative sample from 16 to 69 years old, in total 1071 citizens. We used binary logistic regression for the analysis of responses, a method that can be used to predict a categorical dependent variable – in our case whether a person has been sexting the last 12 months or not. In the study we included the following independent variables: gender, education, self-efficacy; the cognitive reflection test (CRT) to distinguish between a intuitive versus analytical decision style; Machiavellianism, to distinguish a personality trait characterized by manipulativeness and deceitfulness; willingness to share personal data, and finally whether the citizens had experience of ID-theft or credit-card misuse within the previous 12 months. Our results show that the ID-theft/credit-card variable was a significant predictor of sexting for the age-groups 16-29, 30-39 and 50-69 years old. For youngest group, the manipulativeness and deceitfulness trait is also a predictor, whereas for the oldest group, the intuitive decision style a high willingness to share personal data are also significant predictors.

Keywords: Sexting, digital vulnerability, personal traits, the cognitive reflection test, willingness to share personal data, national study