Young female users’ perception of and exposure to sex-related contents on social media in Nigeria

Abstract

A number of factors account for the reasons why young female people put on a certain kind of behaviour. Studies, in Nigeria, have shown that sexual immoralities and sexual weird behaviours among young female are on the increase.The study assessed young female users’ perception of and exposure to sex-related content on social media in Nigeria.The study adopted analytical approach to elicit relevant data from a range of messages on the Facebook and Instagram walls, a total of 105 images, cartoons and video skits relevant to the focus of this research were purposively selected and analysed from the walls of 510 contacts on Facebook and Instagram. The contents on the Facebook and Instagram walls of the respondents were selected on the basis of their relevance to this study. Data were collected from the Facebook and Instagram walls of young university female students believed to be relevant to this study. Findings showed that young social media users perceive sex-related contents on social media as causing sex initiation. Findings also revealed that socialization informed young female users’ exposure to sex-related contents on social media. The study, therefore, recommended that Governments at all levels, have to arrest the increasing immoral behaviours and obscene contents on social media, must initiate laws to regulate the contents of social media, especially as it relates to sex. Though, smartphones are everywhere and the heavy users of these smartphones have been the young people, evils of exposing to sex-related contents on social media should be publicised among youths, using other mass communication media to deter and debar the young people from viewing the vulgarities on social media platforms. The study focused on perception and exposure of young female users to sex-related contents on social media, it failed to examined other media of mass communication such as magazine, television and other digital media through which young women could get exposed to other sex-related contents.