Sexting, Age and Digital Vulnerabilities

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 and a high willingness to share personal data are also significant predictors.