BEHIND SEXTING – Intergenerational digital sex education Erasmus Project

Project Title

BEHIND SEXTING – Intergenerational digital sex education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Adolescents use digital media to build and co-construct their environments, connecting their online and offline worlds that play a crucial role in the developmental of their sexuality and identity. But the progress of digital media has led to risks affecting the bio-psycho-social well-being of teens. These risks, initiated and maintained in an online context, have a reciprocal and bidirectional relationship with the off-line reality of the individual. The consequences on adolescents are very serious, such as loss of perceived quality of life, suicidal ideation and interference in school, social and family life. Sexting is one of the practices leading to these risks. It consists in sending or getting sexual explicit or suggestive images, messages, or video on a smartphone or through the Internet. It’s been discovered that the mean worldwide relevance for sending a sexting image was 14.8% among adolescents, while the rate has increased for the received sexting images (27.4%). Approximately 1 in 8 adolescent reports either forwarding or having a sext forwarded without their consent.
Furthermore, sexting is associated with engagement in a variety of risky behaviors, such as cyberbullying, sexual (risk) behaviors, and deviant behaviors. Finally, it was found that victimization in one context can make youth vulnerable to other types of victimization and thus extend their victim status over time.
According to the polyvictimization theory, victimization often does not occur in isolation but there is a direct correlation among cyberbullying, cyber dating abuse, sexting, online grooming and problematic Internet use. In order to curb this trend, the proposal has as its main objective the creation of an open education and an innovative practice in the digital age based on the definition of a digital sex education’s path for students aged 10-19 attending secondary school and parents through the peer methodology. The proposal develops in the age of digitization in which digital tools are part of everyone’s daily life. There are many benefits to be gained from the use of new technologies, but to fully enjoy them is necessary to know the risks and how to use them safely. It is essential to involve the school as this is the educational context in which teens spend most of their time, during which they grow up relating with their peers in their class and with students of other age groups. It’s also important to engage school teachers in open dialogue with pupils in order to tackle the phenomenon of sexting. For this reason, the proposal will be aimed at raising teens, parents, teachers awareness about the risks of sexting and to encourage an intergenerational critical discussion around sexting. To better achieve this goal, the proposal provides training process addressed to teachers/trainers supported by experts in multimedia, sex education, psychology’ s field, students between 10 and 19 years and their parents using peer methodology.
Through the peer training, students and parents will follow a gradual, not judgmental and participatory path of knowledge of the digital foot print of sexual materials shared through digital devices, its implications on the privacy of adolescents and its effects on their behavior. The core of the proposal is how to deal with the problems once you realize that they are out of our control, i.e provide a way out to the young involved in sexting based on dialogue with peers and parents. The proposal will convey the idea that adolescents who are involved in sexting are not forced to deal with the problem on their own; indeed, they often feel guilty, blaming themselves for their problems (being mistreated or bullied) and do not expect anyone to actually help them. For all these reasons asking for help is sometimes the hardest part. On the other end, is necessary that teens will find parents and school teachers who are aware of their problems and who are able to listen and help them. The project will offer teens the opportunity to learn about the risks of sexting in a peer-to peer manner in two different but interconnected moments. The first one will be the one in which the teachers will be directly involved, under the supervision of experts, in the definition of the didactic materials of digital sex education. The second will involve students who, thanks to the teaching materials previously produced and the supervision of teachers, will acquire awareness of the risks of sexting. In this way, the students will connect themselves and empower their theoretical knowledge and the practical skills related to the use of multimedia devices contents and to the risk of sexting. Peer to peer learning in this context is the most effective methodology to promote the credibility and effectiveness of educational communication; in fact, it allows a mutual exchange of experiences, knowledge and support among young people, encouraging the free expression and serene sharing of ideas, opinion.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 232444 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut pro regionální rozvoj, o.p.s. & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Istituto Comprensivo Benedetto Bonfigli
• TIBER UMBRIA COMETT EDUCATION PROGRAMME
• AEVA – ASSOCIACAO PARA A EDUCACAO E VALORIZACAO DA REGIAO DE AVEIRO
• Zuma-Land SRL
• Institut za raziskovanje in usposabljanje v vzgoji in izobrazevanju – IVIZ
• EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY CYPRUS