Brewer, RussellLogos, KatieGoldsmith, AndrewMiller, Caitlan Elizabeth Sian2025-07-212025-07-212024https://hdl.handle.net/2440/146168The internet serves as a platform for individuals to express and explore their sexual identities, often through creating and sharing sexually explicit content, known as sexting. Research suggests that sexting may lead adolescents to engage in more harmful sexual behaviours, such as the non-consensual distribution of sexual imagery, commonly referred to as image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Previous criminological studies often utilise individual, social, and opportunity theories to explore the factors that may contribute to engagement in online sexual behaviours, however, these theories generally focus on one aspect—individual, social, or opportunity—separately when explaining engagement in these behaviours. Digital drift is one of the few theories that consolidates elements of individual, social and opportunity theories, and emphasises the role of the internet in influencing deviant behaviour. Given the unique environment of the internet, garnering a robust understanding of the risk factors associated with online sexual behaviours necessitates consideration of the interaction between individual user, as well as the social and technical affordances of digital technologies. As such, this thesis aims to identify and elucidate said risk factors, particularly as they pertain to engagement in adolescent sexting and IBSA. It does so by investigating these behaviours through the lens of digital drift theory. Moreover, attention is given to the role of internet pathology in this process – a concept that has attracted considerable recent attention in the academic literature. Accordingly, this thesis argues that more robust understandings of technology-facilitated deviance, such as sexting and IBSA, requires careful consideration of internet pathology alongside other individual, social and technical risk factors. This thesis proposes four hypotheses. Hypothesis one contends that the likelihood of being a pathological internet user is positively influenced by the various elements of digital drift (H1). Hypotheses two, three and four consider the impact on online sexual behaviours, expecting that engagement in sexting (viewing) (H2), sexting (sharing) (H3) and IBSA (H4) will be associated with this combined set of internet pathology and digital drift variables. The data for this thesis came from a survey conducted in 18 South Australian public high schools in July–December 2021, with a sample of 720 adolescents (51.7% female, 48.3% male). Chi-square and t-tests indicated that there was a significant relationship between several of the digital drift variables and internet pathology, supporting their combined use – providing partial support for H1. A series of unadjusted and adjusted logistic regressions demonstrated that individual characteristics and social affordances were more predictive of engagement in sexting than technical variables. In the unadjusted models, all online sexual behaviours were influenced by internet pathology; however, in the adjusted models, this significance persisted only for IBSA. This suggests that the relationship is moderated by one or more of the other digital drift variables related to sexting behaviours – providing partial support for H2, H3 and H4. The implications of these findings are also explored, elaborating upon the specific risk factors that could be targeted with intervention strategies to assist in decreasing the harms associated with engaging in online sexual behaviours.endigital driftadolescentsinternet pathologysextingimage-based sexual abuseThesis