Dalhousie study examines how youth are dealing with online sexual harms

An ongoing research project at Dalhousie University is examining how Canadian youth are dealing with online harm.

Suzie Dunn, an assistant professor at Dalhousie's Schulich School of Law, told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia the project will focus on how the university deals with the issue.

Dunn said one of the aims of the project is a better understanding of what's being considered normal in the online world.

The interview, with host Portia Clark, has been edited for clarity and length.

What prompted this research? What are you trying to find out?

We were really thinking about this kind of complex world that young people are living in, and they're dealing with a lot of really novel sexual issues. Because our research specifically focuses on sexual harms that young people are facing.

Compared to two generations ago, there are things that people haven't thought about yet.

When we're thinking about sexting, we're thinking about sharing nude images, we're thinking about child luring experiences, navigating a world where pornography is very accessible.

We wanted to know what are the realities that young people are facing and also what are the supports that they need in order to live really healthy and well-balanced lives.

That's some of what we know they're facing, but what don't we know about how they're experiencing all of that?

A lot of what we don't know is general things like what applications are they using, what are the real experiences that they're having, and what's also normalized and not normalized.

Things like getting sent a dick pic, is this something that's normal and considered healthy amongst young people, or is it something that's a little bit more controversial?

We want to know what are the actual lived experiences that young people are having, and also how is it that they're navigating it? Is it through their friends? Through teachers? Are they telling their parents? Like, how are they figuring out where to get the information they need?

Is there an assumption though that some harm is happening?

Absolutely. We've seen that in criminal law, there's a lot of cases in Nova Scotia alone.

Everyone knows about the Rehtaeh Parsons case. We know young people are experiencing a lot of harms from things like sexual extortion, nude images being shared without consent and just general online sexual harassment.

What are the policies right now in terms of how sexual harms and online harm is dealt with in schools in practice?

Right now there is a wide variety across Canada, looking at how different jurisdictions are examining these types of things.

We've looked at a lot of the Education Act, school policies that exist, just looking at the text of that material.

And what we found in places like B.C., the Yukon and Ontario, they have relatively comprehensive policies that are talking about things like sexual decision-making, online pornography, sexting, cyberbullying and the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. But in other jurisdictions, it's a little bit more vague.

What about here in Nova Scotia?

In Nova Scotia there is some things in the healthy-living courses. In their curriculum they are talking about things like digital relationships and the hyper-sexualization of girls, but it isn't as comprehensive as what we see in B.C. and Ontario.

This is a five-year project. Where are you now, and where will you go next to find out more of some of what you're trying to discover?

Right now what we're looking at is what existing research exists and what policies exist — particularly in Canada.

There's been a lot of research in other countries like the United Kingdom or Australia that's a lot more comprehensive, but we don't have a lot that's Canada-based.

The first phase is just looking at existing research, existing policies to see what is out there.

The next phase, we really want to talk to young people to say, "Do they know about these policies, do they know about these laws? Do they know about the places they can go?"

Like here in Nova Scotia we have CyberScan. Are young people aware of that and if they are aware of it, is it helpful?

What are the resources that are actually being used by young people and what is it that makes an a trusted adult someone that they would actually go to if they were experiencing some sort of harm? Because youth are particularly vulnerable and often they're just dealing with it amongst themselves.

How are you going to be doing that aspect of the research to get them to feel comfortable and safe sharing with adult researchers?

We're hoping to get some younger [research assistants] to help us with some of these interviews so that they'll be talking young people to young people.

Ultimately, we want to assure them that everything will be confidential. Anything they tell us won't be associated with their names. We'll try and create an open environment.

We're not going to use a lot of language that's typically used that is fear-based, that's risk-based, that blames them for the the behaviour that they're engaging in and might make them feel like they might get in trouble.

We'll try and really create a safe space where they can open up to us.

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