Promoting hook-ups or filling sexual health information gaps? Exploring young people's sex talk on Facebook

Tien Ee Dominic Yeo, Tsz Hang Chu

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference proceedingpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
62 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Social media hold enormous potential for sexuality education and sexual health promotion among young people given the audience reach and interactive functions that could be adapted for intervention delivery. This paper reports the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on the use of social media as a platform for peer sexual communication, by exploring the nature of content posted on Facebook confession pages. We collected 2186 original posts rom one of these semi-Anonymous peer exchanges, a Facebook "sex secrets" page popular with college students in Hong Kong. Analysis revealed that conventional sexual activities within the context of romantic heterosexual relationships were most frequently mentioned in the posts. Problematic or risky sexual activities such as hook-ups (spontaneous casual sex) and sexting that are common among American college students were not salient. Nevertheless, the sexual culture of Hong Kong college students was not without peculiarities. Fetish or roleplay, for instance, was mentioned thrice as often as sexting. Findings on intimate concerns illuminate the needs and gaps in sexuality education and sexual health knowledge.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication#SMSociety17
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Social Media & Society
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages1-4
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781450348478
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Jul 2017
Event8th International International Conference on Social Media and Society, #SMSociety 2017 - Toronto, Canada
Duration: 28 Jul 201730 Jul 2017

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series
VolumePart F129683

Conference

Conference8th International International Conference on Social Media and Society, #SMSociety 2017
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityToronto
Period28/07/1730/07/17

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems
  • Health(social science)
  • Communication

User-Defined Keywords

  • College Students
  • Facebook
  • Hong Kong
  • Sexual Health Information
  • Sexuality Education
  • Youth

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