A qualitative study of children, young people and 'sexting ... - NSPCC

A qualitative study of children, young people and ‘sexting’
I: So they are trying to touch your boobs?
R: No, no. Your bum.
I: Okay more bum.
R: (All talking over each other)
I: Okay so they are touching your bum so that happens like daily and what do you do about
that?
R: Tell them to stop.
R: I slap them.
I: And what if they don’t stop? Do you actually try to get them back?
R: Yeah, we hit them back. It is like, ‘How does it feel? Because you don’t like it if we started
touching you up, you wouldn’t like it.
R: I saw some boy yesterday on Facebook was trying to say he owns my bum. I saw him today
and I shouted at him, and he thinks I’m joking with him. (Focus group, year 8, School Two)
One 13 year old girl (Cherelle, year 8, School Two) described how this had got worse and worse to the
extent that she could not expect to walk past boys in the corridor without them touching her:
R: ‘I have to say that it has increased recently but like you walk past and like a boy will pass and
they will squeeze your bum or something and like just touch your tits.’
Boys confirmed this, but played down its significance, as can be seen in the following discussion.
I: In one of the groups people were talking about like guys touching up girls in the corridor and
stuff like that, is that something that goes on quite a bit or is anyone upset about it kind of
thing?
R: It is not, yeah it does go on but it is not like the girls –
R: It is not that the girls want them to, they just do it.
R: No, they do like, they provoke them kind of thing. They go along with it and act like they are
-. It is not like rape or anything.
R: But some girls, you just want a reaction from them.
I: How do you mean?
R: Like some boys will just touch them up because they want a reaction or they want to see them
get angry or stuff like that. (Focus group, year 8 boys, School One)
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