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Despite the fact that the Western world is surrounded by images with more or less explicit sexual content, the concept of sexuality, its nuances and its most intrinsic symbols often remain hidden, if not worse, interpreted by the public inadequately and stereotypically. Thus, the goal is to examine within a nationally representative sample of three generations possible differences in sexual-related beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors by rigorously exploring sexual practices and behaviors, use of pornography, social media, and dating apps.

The first part of the research describes, from a theoretical point of view, sexuality, pornography, the online world and the use of social media, as well as the concepts of generations X, Y and Z, referring to Italian and international literature and studies published in recent years. The second part goes on to describe the method, instruments and the sample that participated in the research. In the last part, the results of the study are analyzed and discussed, and practical implications are proposed.

What is sexuality?

Galimberti defines sexuality as a “complex of physical, functional, psychic and cultural traits, suitable for the perpetuation of the species. In humans, the sexual act manifests itself as a very complex phenomenon where, in addition to genetic expressions, endocrine and nervous function, individual psychological components and cultural norms are added that influence each individual’s sexual experience and conduct in different ways.

Sexuality, therefore, is a complex concept composed of biological, personal intrapsychic, social, cultural and religious variables, thus encompassing psychological and gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual practices and moral conceptions that each person has constructed for himself or herself. That is why it is important to support the idea that sexuality should be rigorously and scientifically observed in the different spheres in which it is declined, including the political, religious and social spheres that have evolved throughout history: it is precisely the interconnections between the different dimensions that charge sexuality with numerous meanings, making it imperative to adopt multiple points of view.

The points described by Bianca include:

• The bio-anthropological perspective, which refers to sexuality in the genetic-physiological and anthropological modes. Together they study the mutual influences between mating and reproduction and the cultural sphere of individuals;
• The psycho-relational perspective, which investigates the psychological aspects underlying interpersonal relationships (within it lies the psychology of sexuality). Sexuality is interpreted here as a human dimension that results in interpersonal relationships that go beyond the physical sexual act;
• The analytic-existential perspective, on the other hand, studies sexuality as part of each human being’s life project, thus including all the roles, values and meanings each human assigns to it throughout life.
• The socio-cultural perspective deals with sexuality within community and social relations (such as marriage), focusing on the different roles of men and women within global societies. This perspective also includes the study of the different sexual attitudes, changes and behaviors of different populations by era or geographic location.
• The medical-therapeutic perspective deals with physiological and psychological disorders, with the aim of providing suitable treatment interventions.
• Finally, the semiotic perspective aims to understand the underlying meanings and symbols of each individual sexual behavior, giving great importance to the cultural differences from which each individual’s values are derived.

Today’s literature is unanimous in choosing the definition of pornography proposed by Peter and Valkenburg as those contents that show sexual activities in a direct and unambiguous manner, often with enlargements (close-ups) on genital areas and oral, vaginal or anal penetration. Another definition allows for a clear division between (artistic) nudity and pornography, highlighting the clear goal of pornographic material to arouse the viewer. One can speak of pornography then when one is faced with sexually explicit material that is disseminated with the intent to arouse the user.

However, pornography has evolved and shaped itself over the decades. It became for mass consumption only from the 1960s onward, thanks precisely to the sexual liberation movements mentioned above. It was in the following decade that pornography developed and then spread around the world, when its film production was legalized in Denmark and California.

As forItaly, on the other hand, a notable figure in those years was Lasse Braun, a director who was a promoter of numerous campaigns in favor of the legalization of porn cinema. In his biography, the filmmaker describes how until the mid-1960s, the “pornography ‘phenomenon’ was nonexistent and the sparse underground circulation was limited to Scandinavia and the Belgium-Holland-Germany-France area.” At the legislative level, in fact, the Italian judiciary in the 1960s and 1970s, as described in Pezzotta’s (2017) text, was busy seizing all those films that did not comply with the precepts of the Penal Code, particularly those that fell on the obscene and lacked a common sense of decency.
Effort failed with theadvent of red-light cinemas: this type of entertainment was very productive for a decade before the advent of private television and VHS. The latter especially “constitute a decisive tool in the creation of mass voyeurism” (Pezzotta, 2017, p. 272), effectively marking the defeat of the judiciary. Picking up on the point of view of the aforementioned Bertolotti, in the 1980s, the era of video and the digital revolution, pornography became within everyone’s reach: not only could anyone take advantage of it, but at the same time they could also produce it on an amateur level.

This has led to a lowering of the quality of pornographic material, which has increasingly moved away from the aesthetic-erotic aspects and plot, to become predominantly an outlet for any kind of sexual pleasure. It was during this period that “sodomy scenes,” double and triple penetrations, facial ejaculations, gang rapes, and humiliations of all kinds on the body of the woman, who was considered merely an object, became widespread in hardcore cinema, in addition to particularly violent scenes.

Once it entered the public debate with the sexual liberation movements, the Pornography has divided feminists of sixties and Seventy: while some women believed that it was one of the ways in which to display and express female sensuality and sexuality, a much larger group believed instead that pornography was mere exploitation of women’s bodies for commercial purposes.

Menicocci(2011) describes in his research work how mass culture-and consequently pornographic material-are predominantly image-based, changing and shaping according to the needs of the consumer.
The same has also happened to the woman’s body, which has always been used as a form of expression, and in particular to the exposure of the intimate parts: since pornography has depopulated on private television, the woman’s body has undergone significant changes, chief among them the total depilation of the pubis.
This was mainly for visual reasons: a screen no longer as large as a movie theater required that anything that could hide details, including hairs, be removed. Shaved pubes have since been correlated with greater intimacy and less “moral filth“; porn stars are increasingly becoming role models, and women’s bodies are increasingly becoming associated with a sexual commodity on display.

Currently, much research has focused on the correlations between pornography and viewing women as objects. For example, Vandenbosch and Van Oosten (2017have confirmed that the greater the use of pornography and sexually explicit content, the greater will also be the use of gender stereotypes and objectifying notions toward women, especially for those people who have not had any kind of education in the use of pornographic material in school.

the pornography finally undergoes a new and rapid revolution and evolution with the advent of the Internet: through the spread of network access by computers of private users and the emergence of systems such as video sharing and paid sites, millions of users around the world can access and use pornographic material anonymously, reliably, and quickly. Early and most popular pornographic sites include PornHub, Youporn, and RedTube.

Summarizing an overview of research over the past decade, adolescent males and adult males report increased exposure to and use of pornographic material online and offline. With regard to attitudes, clear gender differences were also identified: the search by Price and colleagues (2016describes how more women than men, in all generations surveyed, believe pornography should be illegal; more men than women also believe pornography is a valid and acceptable way to express their sexuality.

Religious differences are present: more religious people use less (or no) online pornography at all. Research conducted in Italy by Barbagli and colleagues (2010) reports that 62 percent of nonbelieving men and 26 percent of nonbelieving women admit to having watched a pornographic film at home, rates that drop to 48 percent and 16 percent, respectively, for convinced and active believing men and women. Remaining still on the Italian scene, the 2019 Censis report finally indicates that within the Italian population between the ages of 18 and 40, 61.2 percent of Italians watch pornographic videos alone and 25.2 percent with their partners, of which 2.6 percent do so regularly (Garelli, 2010).

The motivations for teenagers in particular to use pornography are: curiosity, arousal and the need to know more about sex, but also emotional avoidance, socialization and increased offline sexual encounters.
Peter and Valkenburg point out that people with higher sensation seeking and lower satisfaction in general make greater use of online pornography.

The study conducted by the Center for Social Investment Studies(Censis, 2019) provides information on a precise segment of the population, namely people aged 18 to 40, referred to as “young Italians.”
The report describes how less traditional and more transgressive sexual practices are on the rise, such as a higher number of sex partners, threesomes, paid sex, and the practices of bondage, domination and S&M.
The latter in particular encapsulate all those sexual interactions characterized by an imbalance of power of the parties (two or more sexual partners) and the presence of physical pain as a means of obtaining and maintaining sexual arousal and are characterized by the fundamental presence of consent of all parties enacting them and very often also of key words (the safe words) that allow the practice to be discontinued at any time.
These practices are classified as BDSM.

12.5% of Italians aged 18 to 40 admit to using BDSM practices regularly or occasionally, and 46.9% use offensive or obscene language during the sex act. Also Censis (2019) reports that in 2000, the bondage/sadomaso was being enacted by only 0.5 percent of the Italian population, showing that twenty years ago these kinds of practices were still unknown or niche, or that only very few Italians openly admitted to using them than in recent years.

The report also provides prevalences regarding contraceptive use: 15 percent of women and 8.6 percent of men admit to never having used contraception in the past year. Within millennials also, 63.3 percent of Italians admit to having had at least one complete unprotected sexual intercourse, and only 21.6 percent have always used contraception. Finally, compared to twenty years ago, fewer people currently use contraceptives.

With the emergence and rapid evolution of the
World Wide Web
a new era of mass communication has dawned. Billions of users worldwide use the Internet as their main means of communication and information.
As for the Italian context, 92 percent of Italians say they use the Internet. The rapid spread and steady growth of the online world has enabled the emergence of online messaging and social networking chats such as Myspace, Netlog , and Windows Live Messenger.

These types of Internet platforms allowed people in the first decade of the 2000s to connect with friends and strangers, create their own personal blogs, and interact with users from all over the world in real time. Currently only Myspace is still active, but by far in disuse after the arrival of social networks and smartphone applications.
Today the most widely used social network in the world is Facebook: established in 2004, it currently has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users globally and 31 million in Italy, followed immediately by YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram, with 1.9, 1.5 and 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, respectively.

The main users of these social media are people from 18 to 34 years old, which corresponds to 59% of total users worldwide and 38% in Italy. On average, again in Italy, people spend 6 hours online every day, almost two of which are spent on social media alone.

Given the extent of the Internet and the spread of the social media phenomenon, the sociological and psychological literature questions the possible effects and repercussions that this type of online communication can have on people, especially, again, adolescents and young adults.
One of the most cited research papers is that of Valkenburg & Peter(2009), which summarizes a decade of studies on the social consequences of Internet use for adolescents, focusing on the relationships between online communication self-disclosure (or self-revelation) online, quality of relationships and general well-being.
The results show that online communication for adolescents is more intimate and allows more openness than face-to-face communication.

In terms of general well-being, however, other research points to correlations between Internet and social media use and the mental health of online users: numerous studies highlight the dangerousness of episodes by cyberbullying, greater than traditional bullying episodes (Uhls, 2012), which can lead to depression and suicidal ideation.
The 2013 research, conducted with a sample of more than 1,000 subjects aged 13 to 17, shows that victimization caused by cyberbullying incidents increases the presence of depressive symptoms, and these in turn increase the likelihood of incurring online bullying.
La online victimization also involves problematic Internet use, identified as the set of compulsive behaviors induced by online activity, including inability to control one’s time online, continuous and constant use despite negative consequences, social anxiety e fear of missing out. The latter in particular is defined as a pervasive concern on the part of the subject that other people may have rewarding experiences in his or her absence, which then leads the subject himself or herself to need to be continually connected and updated on what other online users are doing.

Another risk found in the literature is unwanted exposure to material representing sexuality. In addition to the aforementioned SEMs and SEIMs, studies in recent decades also focus on what are called
Sexual Media
i.e., sexual content that is not necessarily explicit within television programs, movies, music, video games and newspapers.

As for other media, however, it has been estimated that 68 percent of American television programs contain dialogue with sexual references and 35 percent contain images of sexual behavior of some kind. Sexual references are also contained in 55 percent of teen fiction books and 84 percent of movie films released from 1950 to 2006.

In Italy there are numerous references to sexuality, especially femalesexuality, represented in the programming schedules of major television stations.
In fact, as early as the 1980s, with TV shows such as “Drive In” (1983-1988), “Colpo Grosso” (1987-1992) and “Striscia la Notizia” (1988 – ongoing), a considerable number of girls flanked game show and variety show hosts as valets and showgirls, mostly in provocative clothing and attitudes.
Throughout the decades there are several examples of the female figure being used in Italian television to entertain the viewer with her body, emphasizing the erotic and sexual component of her figure.
In contrast, there is currently no qualitative or quantitative research on the prevalence of more or less explicit references to sexual intercourse and sexual acts in Italian and European television and cinema.

Given that most people own at least one device to access online content or use classic media, it is important to check the impact that this type of sexual content can have on users.

It is not a given that in all of the above media the sexual references include some kind of sexuality education and dwell on the emotional aspects or possible consequences of unsafe sex.
Indeed, it can be assumed that many media portray and promote sex only as something easy, fun and relatively risk-free. Thus, it is possible to understand how not only scholars and researchers, but also parents, educators and teachers find it necessary to inform themselves about the repercussions of the reckless use of mass media.

Pornography falls under what is referred to in the literature as SEM (
sexually explicit material
) and SEIM (
sexually explicit internet material). These are images, videos, gifs and clips created either professionally or amateurishly, depicting sexual activities in a clear and uncensored manner, with the purpose of arousing those who use them.

SEM and SEIM are divided into:

• affection-themed: this category refers to material that represents an intimate context, where sexual partners show affection for each other and sexual intercourse is a physical transposition of feelings of love and affection.
• Dominance-themed: this group instead depicts couples with one dominant partner (regardless of gender) imposing his or her desires on the other, often degrading him or her.
  The second group instead depicts couples with one dominant partner (regardless of gender) imposing his or her desires on the other, often degrading him or her.
• Violence-themed:
   this third category finally shows a context of aggression and violence against one or more sexual partners, portraying punishment and physical pain, both mild and major.

For many years already, the literature has been questioning the possible negative consequences that pornography, SEMs, and SEIMs can cause to people who use them voluntarily, especially if they are adolescents and minors. Interesting, however, are the research insights that focus on unintentional and accidental exposure.
It is important to note that this content includes pornography, but it is not solely pornographic: it can be traced within song lyrics, social media, advertisements, and television programs. When they are not exclusively explicit content, they are instead referred to as Sexual Media.

The meta-analysis by Coyne and colleagues describes how unwanted exposure to SEM in the media positively correlates with more permissive sexual attitudes, greater acceptance of the rape myth, and more risky sexual activities, especially for young adults and adolescents.
Just about this age, Vandenbosch(2015), in a study conducted with 13- to 17-year-old boys, attests that 72.6 percent of the sample claims to have been exposed to SEIM in the past 6 months; boys are more likely to be exposed to this content than girls; finally, older adolescents are more likely to be exposed to violent and dominant content (dominance-themed, and violence-themed) than younger people.

There are few both quantitative and qualitative studies in the literature that delve into sexuality within different generations, with the aim of understanding the underlying reasons for any changes in sexuality from one generation to the next.

Regarding the Italian scene, one such study is “The Sexuality of Italians”. The study, sociologically based but with multidisciplinary insights, identifies the behaviors and beliefs of a sample of 7,000 people aged 18 to 69, interviewed by quantitative and qualitative methods between 2006 and 2007. The sample was subdivided by gender, generation, age, region of residence and educational qualification to obtain as complete a representation of sexuality as possible.

Topics investigated in the questions include: first sexual experiences, contraception, number of partners, couple life, cheating, homosexuality, and correlationswith religion.

In a Findandan study (Haavio-Mannila, Roos, Kontula, 1996) it is shown that, in new generations compared to older generations, attitudes about sex before marriage, casual sex, homosexuality and sex without emotional relationship are more permissive and less rigid. In contrast, reverse trend in pornography use and infidelity between partners, which are less accepted in new generations than in previous generations.

The study by Twenge and colleagues (2015) points out that the generation that experienced the spread ofAIDS in the 1980s reports lower values for the number of partners and frequencies of sexual intercourse with casual partners than both the generation before and after. In general, the results confirm that a more individualistic culture leads to a rejection of more traditional values and norms, believing that sexuality should not depend on social conventions.

From photography to red-light cinema, from VHS to smartphones, the pornographic world literally becomes at your fingertips. The literature describes pornography as widely accessible, easily enjoyed, anonymous, and increasingly socially accepted.

Most of the research-psychological and otherwise-to date has focused on the more problematic aspects of pornography use, especially for adolescents and young adults, but it also does not exclude outcome positive such as sexual gratification, relief from boredom, and at the educational level, greater understanding and discovery of one’s sexual identity and exploration of new sexual activities (McCormack & Wignall, 2017).

In research based on self-perceptions of hardcore pornography use, it was found that most participants, report more positive than negative effects in several areas: increased knowledge about sex, sexual attitudes, sex life, and increased satisfaction in life in general.

Despite these findings, there is a far more robust strand of research that attributes negative effects and consequences to pornography. Those who use pornographic material may fail to distinguish pornographic content with real-life sexual interactions, assimilate new and unrealistic beliefs about sexuality, have more intrusive and obsessive thoughts not only about pornography but also about offline sexuality, more risky behaviors, and more permissive attitudes, including unsafe sex and more sexual partners. Finally, pornography could also negatively affect self-perception, body image, and sexual satisfaction.

Donevan & Mattebo ‘s (2017) research, identified that out of a sample of 371 male 18-year-olds, 69% said they were average users, while 11% were regular (everyday) users.
The most worrisome consequences emerge in the latter: lower age of sexual debut, risky sexual behavior, increased preoccupation with sexuality, and high risk of addiction to sexually explicit material. In addition, 25.1% of individuals who consume pornography more than once a week exhibit at least one abnormal sexual response following a medical examination.

Thus, the literature describes problematic effects regarding attitudes, beliefs and behaviors related to sexuality, addiction and compulsion, self-perception, identity and gender stereotypes. While research emphasizes the negative aspects of pornography, especially since the spread of the Internet, it is not possible to condemn this type of material without taking into account the various positive implications instead cited in other research, albeit little.

Of interest is the contribution of a recent study (Vaillancourt-Morel et al., 2017) that divides the use of cyberpornography(i.e., online pornography) into distinct dimensions. The authors’ goal is to specify that the type of use and the emotional state of the user appear to be determinants on different problematic outcomes .
The sample of 830 participants, aged 18 to 78, was asked to answer a battery of five questionnaires.

• The first questionnaire, the Cyber Pornography Use Inventory, identifies three dimensions of pornography use: the compulsive aspect, the type of actions taken to access pornographic material, and finally the type of emotional distress related to the use of pornographic material.
• The second tool is the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction, which assesses one’s overall satisfaction with one’s sex life.
• This is followed by the questionnaire created specifically for sexual compulsivity, the Sexual Compulsivity Scale, which includes difficulties mastering one’s intrusive thoughts, concerns, or behaviors and the effects these have in everyday life.
• The fourth tool, the Sexual Avoidance Subscale consists of ten questions investigating avoidance of sexual situations and interactions, and finally the last part of the questionnaire is theArizona Sexual Experience Scalewhich investigates possible sexual dysfunction that occurred in the seven days prior to completion: ability to have an erection, ability to experience sexual arousal, achievement of orgasm, and possible pain during intercourse.

The results allow the sample to be divided into 3 clusters:

• recreational users (75.5%);
• Highly stressed (distressed) but not compulsive (12.7%);
• compulsive (11.8%).

Especially clinically important is the second group of subjects, who viewing online pornography experience great emotional stress (shame and self-loathing, punitive feelings), which in turn is associated with less compulsion and greater avoidance and sexual dysfunction.

The research shows how cyberpornography can thus be conceptualized based on a continuum, ranging from recreational use to compulsive use of sexually explicit material online. Finally, the authors suggest that in both scientific research and clinical practice, the consequences ofonline pornography use should be sought not only in the duration or type of material viewed, but also in the moral, social and personality characteristics of individual users.

Staying within social media, research in recent years focuses on a booming phenomenon: the
sexting
.
Defined as the sending via an internet-enabled device of text messages, images, and videos depicting the person sending these files in sexually explicit attitudes, the sexting is mainly active on social media that offer messaging chat and opens a debate on the possible causes and consequences of misuse.
If in fact, on the one hand, sexting could be seen as a way to express one’s sexuality and initiate sexual activity enhance the relationship with a partner, especially in the case of stable or long-distance relationships, and distract from boredom; on the other hand, this type of practice, especially in its more problematic forms, could lead to incidents of cyberbullying, damage to reputation, coercion, and revenge porn, covered in the next paragraphs.

But what really is sexting?
A very interesting cue is provided by Roberts and Ravn(2019), who through 10 focus groups with young adult males (ages 18 to 22), open a discussion focused on defining the phenomenon. It turned out that teens believe that sexting with a person is part of normal teen and young adult sex life, that for most people the line between sexting and harassment is very clear, as is, albeit often implicit, the consent of both parties.

It has been estimated that 15-30% of adolescents and 40-60% of adults and young adults send messages of type sexting.
In Italy, a recent study describes slightly lower percentages: within the population aged 18-40, 37.5 percent of people send sexually explicit images via smartphone. Finally, there appear to be no correlations with risky sexual behavior or psychosocial well-being.
The literature reports that the prevalences of both receiving and sending are higher for adults than for adolescents, and that in both populations the number of sexting received is greater than those sent, but it also underscores a worrying aspect of the phenomenon: 12% of teenagers forward sexting messages to third parties without the sender’s consent.
This behavior falls under the most problematic forms of sexting, namely nonconsensual forwarding and pressured sexting.
While the former refers precisely to all those messages that are shared with other people outside the source chat, Without the consent of the person who sent them, the second is a real form of coercion that goes against the will of the person on whom it is imposed.

The phenomenon of pressured sexting affects both genders: the most recent data show that nearly 30 percent (26.3% for women and 28.4% for men) of a sample of more than 4,200 participants aged 16 to 49 admit to having felt pressured at least once to send a photo or video with sexually explicit content. Breaking down the different ages, the people who most report feeling forced to send explicit selfies are the 16-19 year olds (40.6%) and 20-29 year olds (39.1%). The consequences of being forced to send and/or receive messages with sexual content are emotional (negative emotions) and social.

On the other hand, regarding nonconsensual forwarding, studies by Henry and colleagues(2019) estimate that 9.2 percent of women and 12.5 percent of men report having experienced this phenomenon. Nonconsensual forwarding is also correlated with experiences of offline coercion: adolescent girls who have experienced episodes of coercion in their lives confirm that they received a sexting message without giving consent.

It seems clear, therefore, that with regard to sex education and especially the sharing of personal images and videos with sexually explicit content, it is neither possible to judge the phenomenon of sexting entirely negatively, nor, on the contrary, to endorse it or believe it to be desirable. Therefore, it is necessary to focus reflection not so much on abstinence from the practice, but rather on all those psychological and social implications that result from reckless and inappropriate use of this type of communication: it is essential to make people understand that the sharing of this type of content is unfortunately uncontrollable, as is the risk of rapid dissemination, making it impossible to trace and ultimately eliminate.
It is also evident that accessibility to this type of content is extremely easy. One example is the research on sexually explicit amateur snaps conducted by Yockey and colleagues.
 The objective of the study is to test how sexuality is portrayed within a Snapchat account aimed at U.S. college-bound teens, assuming that especially in the U.S., this social networking site is also used for sharing sexting messages, nudes , and sexually explicit conversations.
This hypothesis stems from the fact that Snapchat has a peculiar messaging chat compared to other social media, in that audio-visual content is available within the chat only for a limited period of time. Users often exploit this feature believing that it makes it more difficult to share content externally. It is actually possible, via screenshots and other applications, to pull media from the conversation effectively making Snapchat no more secure than other platforms.
After a period of three months, the authors verified that 394 snaps with sexual content were sent within the account. Of these, 86.6% portrayed only women. Of this content, 78% was deemed by the authors to be consensual, while 22% was non-consensual. Forty percent of all snaps portrayed naked people, pre, during and post sexual act, again predominantly women. Finally, the snaps are accompanied by descriptions or hashtags with clear and explicit sexual references.

Considering that the practice of taking photos and videos during sexual intercourse is also present and widespread in Italy, this research is very interesting to understand how easily sexually explicit content is shared and accessible, aimed especially at male users, and how this content could increase the risk of degradation and objectification of the female body and possible dangerous interactions due to the publication of these types of images.

The women’s emancipation movements that arose between the second half of the 1800s and the first two decades of the following century are the first turning point in contemporary history that granted the moral and social change fundamental to the construction of the concept of sexuality as we know it today. These movements involved the United States and most European states, with the aim of winning basic civil rights hitherto denied to the female population.

Women were considered second-class citizens, and the man was the legal representative of the woman, whose only role in society was to be a wife and mother. Despite the economic and social development that was widespread in the Western world at that time, the female population still had no right to adequate education, no equal access to men in the working world, and no right to vote.
The subordinate status of women on all fronts led to the beginning of the first struggles with the activism of the suffragettes who were already beginning to demand equality within the family as well, both in terms of rights over children and in the marital couple.
The first real changes occurred only in the early decades of the 1900s, where starting in Finland(1906), the right to vote was extended to women: inEngland in 1918, in the United States in 1920, and only after World War II in Italy and France as well.

The early feminist movement thus focused on women’s suffrage and the removal of legal obstacles to gender equality, thus laying the foundation for the struggle for women’s emancipation. In the 1960s and 1970s., following a remarkable economic boom present throughout the Western world, a second feminist wave developed, closely interconnected with the sexual liberation movements, focusing in these years on women’s identity from a more intimate and personal point of view: women now spoke of contraception, decriminalization of abortion, interchange of male and female roles within the couple, and self-determination.

Sexuality and the woman-man relationship thus become a social-political issue: starting with abortion, sexual liberation movements will focus on sexual violence, sexual intercourse before marriage, and birth control, with the goal of men and women living in a society without psychological, economic, and sexual repression.
Against the backdrop of these major changes affecting the role of women in society and in the heterosexual relationship, those minorities – gays and lesbians – who claim their sexual identity and choose not to be ashamed of their “diversity” also take voice and are supported. Another central issue in the public debates of the time is pornography, previously kept hidden and unconfessed by most.

In 1966 Master and Johnson published “Human Sexual Response,” the result of eleven years of direct observations of the physiological responses of the sexual response of a sample of women and men aged 18 to 89.
Unlike Kinsey’s study, Master and Johnson carry out their observations in the laboratory, studying more than ten thousand sexual acts, from female masturbation to natural coitus (via penile penetration) and artificial coitus (via stimulating object). The results enabled the two scholars not only to theorize about a precise cycle of sexual response, but also to emphasize how female sexual response is fundamentally similar to male sexual response, unlike what had been assumed instead until then.
Although physiologically based, Masters and Johnson’s contribution broadened knowledge about the entire sphere of human sexuality, thus essential to all subsequent publications that arose as a result of these early revolutionary findings.
One among them is Kaplan’s “New Sexual Therapies” (1974), which in addition to revising on the basis of his clinical experience the previously theorized sexual cycle, focuses mainly on the female orgasm, hypothesizing four different ones. scenarios: the absence of orgasm, clitoral and coital orgasm (according to the author the most frequent ones) and finally orgasm with fantasies (Panzeri, 2012).

Considering what has already been reported on the role of women in society at the time of the publication of these texts, it is clear the impact that such publications have had not only within the scientific sphere, but also in the practical field, making them promoters of a new, more comprehensive and informed view of female sexuality.

Without rejecting the views of those who see feminism and the sexual revolution of these years as two unsuccessful and inconclusive movements, it is possible to believe without a doubt that the shift of the sexual sphere from the private to the public, political and even legislative place (with the divorce law and the decriminalization of abortion , in Italy in 1974 and 1978 respectively), has led to numerous changes in society, customs and beliefs that are still reflected in contemporary society today.

From the 1990s to the present, the debate on the status of women in Western society, sometimes identified as the third feminist wave or post-feminist movement, has focused mainly on discrimination in the working world, first and foremost the wage gap and harassment at work, but among the most discussed issues we also find reflections on the rights of transgender women, the objectification of women’s bodies by the media and, especially in the more conservative states of the U.S., the abolition of laws that still prohibit abortion.

In addition to the aforementioned pressured sexting and nonconsesual forwarding, in recent years both the scholarly literature and the media devote ample space to the risks born from sharing personal and intimate material within social media and online messaging platforms.

Of these, two are the most discussed: revenge porn and online sexual solicitations.

Revenge porn:

Revenge porn isdefined as the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of a person without that person’s consent (Citron & Franks, 2014). Often from an ex-partner, with the goal of threatening or humiliating the person in question, this content may have been originally obtained with consent or, conversely, through coercion, or even through hidden cameras and intrusion into an Internet-connected device.
Revenge porn thus falls within nonconsensual pornography, which has developed like wildfire in recent years on numerous online sites specifically dedicated to it.

The impact of this illicit distribution of intimate and personal material includes public humiliation, feelings of shame and difficulty in starting a new relationship, increased risk of stalking and offline victimization, as well as complex psychological consequences such as panic attacks, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Only recently and as a result of the increasing number of media cases are legal responses being explored to try to counter this growing phenomenon. In Italy, specifically, it is only in 2019 that the bill introducing Article 612-ter into the Criminal Code, which refers to the unlawful dissemination of sexually explicit images or videos, was introduced. In this article, revenge porn, translated as “nonconsensual pornography,” is defined as the act of sharing intimate images or videos of a person without his or her consent, implemented both online and offline.

Online sexual solicitation:

Recent research has shown that sexting by teenagers increases the likelihood of being a victim of sexual solicitation by an adult within a year.
Sexual solicitations are defined as requests or encouragement to initiate a sexually oriented conversation, share personal information sexually, initiate sexual activity, with or without the other person’s consent.

They can thus be divided into different forms:

• Online sexual solicitations;
• Sexual solicitations from adults or peers, from people known even offline or only online, intended or unsolicited.

Sklenarova‘s research and colleagues shows that out of 2238 participants (adolescents aged 14 to 17 years), 51% have had at least one online sexual experience in the past year, among them 14.5% claim to have had it exclusively with an adult and 52.7% exclusively with a peer (or perceived peer), while 31.8% claim mixed experiences.

Most adolescents evaluate these experiences as positive and do not perceive themselves as victims of sexual solicitations. Finally, 5.9% and 10.4% of adolescents report having negative experiences with peers and adults, respectively.

Based on these results, it is possible to understand how it is extremely common for adolescents and young adults to use the Internet to initiate sexually oriented conversations with people they do not always know even offline. This can increase the risk of having experiences with people who pretend to be peers, but who are actually adults under false pretenses. Not only that, can increase the risks of sexual coercion, risky sexual behaviors, egrooming victimization, i.e., being friendly and manipulative with a child, especially on the Internet, with the aim of obtaining-through persuasion-sexual favors not always recognized as such by the child (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

The literature focuses mainly on this age group precisely because compared to the others it appears to be the one most at risk, both in terms of the risk factors themselves and the psychological and social consequences of online interactions for sexual purposes. At the educational level, therefore, all those programs and interventions that enable adolescents and young adults to develop awareness regarding their online actions assume great importance.

With the spread of mobile data and smartphones, the world of online dating has also evolved accordingly, developing mobile apps, one among them Tinder.
This is a free dating app known for its convenience of use: the conversation between two people begins only if both have found the other interesting, this through an easy gesture, the swipe to the right.
If, on the other hand, a profile does not match one’s interests, the swipe to the left remains completely anonymous, thus ensuring that users cannot be tracked by others. Currently widespread in more than 190 countries, Tinder has 2 billion visits per day and more than 30 billion matching profiles (Tinder, n.d.). However, this is not the only app dedicated to online dating: globally, among the most widely used are Badoo, Grindr, Lovoo and Meetic. In total, nearly 220 million people worldwide use dating apps, both free and paid, of these 43% are between 25 and 34 years old. Male users are the main users, with prevalences ranging from 67% to 84%.

Given the wide use of these types of applications, it is interesting to study how they impact the social, affective and relational context of their users.
A recent review focuses on those studies in the literature that have been concerned with explaining the use of Tinder in different areas. A first area is evolutionary based: certain characteristics of the profiles of men registered on Tinder, make the user more attractive, increase the likelihood of a match , and appeal to evolutionary theories of fitness, i.e.,fitness and better reproductive success: a partner with a higher level of education could provide more support and stability.

From a strictly psychological perspective, on the other hand, Tinder users, compared to those who do not use this application, report higher levels of extroversion and openness to new opportunities, but also manipulative behavior, impulsivity, emotional coldness, low levels of empathy, and antisocial traits.

Motivations for people to communicate through applications such as Tinder can be the search for a new relationship, casual sex, convenience and ease of online communication, and the thrill of the experience itself, but also to improve one’s self-esteem.

Two studies conducted in Australia and the United States, respectively, also show that there are gender differences in the use of Tinder: men use the app predominantly for casual dating and seeking sex, while women more frequently seek a partner for a romantic and lasting relationship. Numerous studies have focused on risk behaviors associated with the use of dating apps, including, for example, unprotected sex, more casual partners, sexually transmitted diseases, and alcohol and drug use before or during sex.

More recent research has explored from a behavioral perspective the differences between dating app users and people who do not use dating apps. The results confirm that those who use dating apps report more experiences of casual sexual partners, but no significant differences are denoted with regard to the other risk behaviors mentioned by previous studies.

On the other hand, the literature remains unanimous in suggesting educational programs and interventions, especially for younger segments of the population, that emphasize awareness of the consequences of risky sexual behaviors, complementing classic sex education interventions with the impact that social media and online dating apps can have in the sphere of sexuality.

The Western world is amply surrounded by images with more or less explicit sexual content, but the approach to sexuality is inadequate and highly stereotyped.

What is sexuality?

Galimberti defines sexuality as a “complex of physical, functional, psychic and cultural traits, suitable for the perpetuation of the species.
In humans, the sexual act manifests itself as a very complex phenomenon where, in addition to genetic expressions, endocrine and nervous function, individual psychological components and cultural norms are added that influence each individual’s sexual experience and conduct in different ways.
Sexuality, therefore, is a complex concept composed of biological, personal intrapsychic, social, cultural and religious variables, thus encompassing psychological and gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual practices and moral conceptions that each person has constructed for himself or herself.
That is why it is important to support the idea that sexuality should be rigorously and scientifically observed in the different spheres in which it is declined, including the political, religious and social spheres that have evolved throughout history: it is precisely the interconnections between the different dimensions that charge sexuality with numerous meanings, making it imperative to adopt multiple points of view.

Sexuality can be studied from different vantage points:

• bio-anthropological the focus is on the mutual influences between mating, reproduction and the cultural sphere of individuals;
• psycho-relational investigating the psychological aspects underlying interpersonal relationships;
• analytical-existential, sexuality as part of the life project of each human being;
• socio-cultural deals with sexuality within the community, social relations and between genders;
• medical-therapeutic has its focus on physiological and psychological disorders, with the aim of providing suitable treatment interventions.