Sextortion: a strategy of online sexual violence in university students

Sexual violence has found another context in which to perpetrate itself in technological media and virtual spaces. Strategies of control, manipulation or sexual blackmail spread their tentacles between the cracks of internet, as another manifestation of the most perverse gender violence. One of its forms of expression is the dynamics of sextortion that articulate violence both, during emotional-sexual relationships, and once they have ended too. The objective of this research focused on analyzing the sexting behaviors and the dynamics of sextortion experienced by university students; evaluating, in parallel, the relationship between victimization by sextortion and the behaviors and motivations towards sexting related to the emotional-sexual couple. The sample was made up of 3.293 (68.3 % girls) students from the University of Santiago de Compostela with an age range between 18 and 56 years (M = 18.83; SD = 2.28). The results identified that sexting behaviors are normalized among young people, especially among those who indicate they are in a relationship. Regarding sextortion, the figures indicated that around 3 of every 100 students have been victims of sextortion by their emotional partner and over 2 of every 100 have suffered revenge porn from their ex-partner. These online sexual violence strategies affect girls and non-binary gender people to a greater extent than boys. However, the students who have a romantic relationship are the least victims of sextortion in all its forms of expression. Statistical results confirm the synergies between sextortion, sexting and sexting motivated by the emotional partner. Therefore, this research shows the need to incorporate a feminist pedagogical approach in the university training stage.