Can Messaging Applications Prevent Sexting Abuse? a Technology Analysis

The digital and mobile revolutions have changed the way people live their sexuality. Sexting, the practice of sending or receiving any sexually explicit content through mobile devices, has gained popularity, especially amongst teenagers and young adults, bringing several concerns, such as the uncontrolled spread of personal nude or semi-nude media without the owner's consent. Moreover, messaging applications generally used to communicate (and practice sexting) are not safe enough, e.g., they permit to send and forward any received content to anyone else. In this scenario, we believe that, beside education, technological solutions should be devised to avoid or limit sexting abuse. To this aim, we have developed SafeSext, a proof of concept messaging system, which also implements an image forwarding control feature. Through it, we have analyzed possible solutions, as well as their limits, in supporting a safer messaging environment where users retain some form of control over the forwarding of their self-generated sensitive contents.