Abstract

Young people have faced a history of moral panics concerning their presence online, and a recently reported increase in teenage sexting has intensified these fears. As a result, responses from stakeholders have told young people that their exploration of sexuality, particularly mediated
through digital technology, is wrong, often correlating their behaviours with deviance and illegality. Yet, providing agency to young people in their sexual media production enables teenagers to communicate their sexual desires. As use of digital technology continues to accelerate among the youth sector, we must understand that mediating one’s sexual life will be included in its use.

This thesis project explores how Quebec police departments attempt to educate young people (eighteen years and younger) regarding the practice of sexting, primarily the sharing of nude photographs. This project investigates Quebec’s sexting campaigns “SEXTing is PORN,” and “SEXTO,” developed to shape adolescent access to digital sexual information. Campaign material is examined through situational analysis to identify discursive ideas of sexting presented in these pieces of media, the collection of stakeholders involved in the creation of these messages,
and the potential absence of positions within these discourses of teenage sexting. Overall, this research finds that the campaigns under study rely on police and government organizations framing teenage sexting as child pornography. Without expressing alternative positions, young people are left unequipped to deal with challenges they may face and may be scared to reach out in fear of legal repercussions.