Promoting hook-ups or filling sexual health information gaps?: Exploring young people's sex talk on Facebook

Abstract

Social media hold enormous potential for sexuality education and sexual health promotion among young people given the audience reach and interactive functions that could be adapted for intervention delivery. This paper reports the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on the use of social media as a platform for peer sexual communication, by exploring the nature of content posted on Facebook confession pages. We collected 2186 original posts rom one of these semi-anonymous peer exchanges, a Facebook "sex secrets" page popular with college students in Hong Kong. Analysis revealed that conventional sexual activities within the context of romantic heterosexual relationships were most frequently mentioned in the posts. Problematic or risky sexual activities such as hook-ups (spontaneous casual sex) and sexting that are common among American college students were not salient. Nevertheless, the sexual culture of Hong Kong college students was not without peculiarities. Fetish or roleplay, for instance, was mentioned thrice as often as sexting. Findings on intimate concerns illuminate the needs and gaps in sexuality education and sexual health knowledge.