![]() ![]() The more sexual harassment girls experience, the more likely they are to feel emotional distress, depression and embarrassment, have lowered self-esteem, suffer from substance abuse and have suicidal thoughts. Girls describe sexual harassment as making them feel “dirty – like a piece of trash,” “terrible,” “scared,” “angry and upset” and “like a second-class citizen.” Seventy-six percent of girls report feeling unsafe because they are girls at least once in a while. These sexual harassment experiences don’t leave girls unscathed. If it isn’t in the school building itself, it is on their phones: four out of five teen girls have had at least one friend who has been asked by a boy to send a “sexy or naked” picture. It occurs so commonly, and in public spaces like hallways and cafeterias, that by middle school almost all students (96%) have witnessed sexual harassment happening at school. My colleagues and I have found that 90% of girls have experienced sexual harassment at least once by the end of high school. Research with middle school and high school girls has shown that in fifth grade one out of four adolescents have experienced sexual harassment in the form of sexual comments, jokes, gestures or looks. It only makes sense then that a popular post on social media addresses one of the biggest sources of stress in teen girls’ lives: sexual harassment. Lockdowns and remote learning are especially painful for teens, because they are at the developmental stage when the need to connect with peers is at an all-time high.Īt the same time that teens are spending more hours of their day on social media, the content of what is getting posted has become increasingly focused on social issues and “real-life” challenges and worries. reported being online “almost constantly.” Over the past year as they were stuck at home during remote schooling, teens relied on social media even more to cope with the forced social isolation. Pre-COVID-19, a Pew Research Center poll found almost half of teens in the U.S. As a developmental psychologist, I think this trend showcases how teens have developed a modern way of coping with a long-standing problem. This trend brings together two nearly universal realities in the lives of teen girls: the ubiquitous presence of social media and the daily barrage of sexual harassment. By calling attention to how common sexual harassment is for teen girls, the “Put a finger down: Sexual harassment edition” video has become the 2021 TikTok teen version of the #MeToo movement of 2017. The new video is aimed at teens and focuses on sexual harassment. Similar videos about sexual assault posted by young women became popular in 2020. ![]() ![]() A recent TikTok video that has been liked by almost half a million people encourages girls to record themselves putting one finger down for every time they have been sent unsolicited dick pics, begged for nudes, catcalled, repeatedly asked out after already saying no, and forced to do something sexual when they didn’t want to. ![]()
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