Public Sexting

Unlike when I was in high school, sexting isn't just a (supposedly) private act between two people anymore. Ever heard of Collegefession? The extremely popular Twitter account (@collegefession) has over a million followers. When I started following Collegefession in 2013, they not only posted sent in confessions from universities across the United States, but were also well known for #tittytuesday, #wetwednesday, and #thongthursday, among other day themed hashtags. On the signified days, girls would send in pictures matching the theme, usually naked or nearly so. Every now and then the pictures included their faces and always included their affiliated universities. The boob, ass, and other provocative pictures were posted very publicly for anyone and everyone to see. There was no proof that these girls were actually 18 or older or that these pictures weren't sent in by boyfriends or hook ups.

Eventually, women started to request pictures catered to their preferences, and man "bulge" pictures and muscled chest photos earned their own days. They lacked the alliterated hashtags, however.

These days, Collegefession still posts the various nude or almost nude pictures every week, but now very few of them appear in their Twitter timeline. Instead they take you to their website, where you can not only access this week's #thongthursday, but any picture ever posted by the website. Supposedly, the account moved to this system because of the amount of photos they received. These photos more often than not include the girls' faces. Pictures are sent in via a submission link or Snapchat.

Of course, the site doesn't include any unattractive or overweight girls in their collections and the photos probably won't result in harassment on account of appearance. When the photos were still on Twitter, there could have been a psychological or emotional effect depending on whether or not the photo got as many likes as someone else's, however this issue has been lessened by the transition to posting the photos on collegefession.com. Nevertheless these photos are still widely available and easy to find. The girls can easily be identified by the people who know them on campus and are available to future partners or employers. Because of this, this very public form of sexting falls under the "risky sexual behavior" described in "Risky Behavior and Adolescent Development" by Temple, Le, Peskin, Markham, and Tortolero. This type of behavior may co-occur with other risky behaviors like sex with multiple partners or excessive alcohol consumption in pursuit of positive outcomes like "acceptance and respect by peers, role experimentation and identity development, establishing autonomy from parents, and marking a transition from childhood into adulthood" (p. 83). There's nothing like submitting nude photos to a very public platform to demonstrate your independence from your parents.

References

Temple, J., Le, V., Peskin, M., Markham, C., & Tortolero, S. (2014). Risky Behavior and Adolescent Development. Sexting and Youth, 77-94.