Syns man inte, finns man inte - en studie om ungdomar som väljer att ladda upp lättklädda bilder av sig själva på internet

If you can not be seen, you do not exist Media today is often full of proclaiming headlines stating teenagers’ shocking behavior on the Internet. Computers and the Internet have developed into a new arena for teenagers’ social interaction. This conveys new possibilities as well as new risks and raises questions of what they do in this new arena and who is responsible for it. The focus in this thesis was of how professionals describe the phenomena of teenagers choosing to upload reviling photos of them selves on Internet. The aim was to explore the professionals’ point of view of the subject. Professionals in this context intending people who through their work positions are in regular contact with teenagers. The questions at issue were focusing on the how the professionals look upon the phenomena as a whole, on who is seen as responsible and on the description the professionals give of the teenagers who chooses to upload reviling photos of themselves on the Internet. Twelve professionals were interviewed during eight interviews. The questions raised in relation to teenagers uploading reviling photos of them selves on the Internet can be interpreted as social constructions. The collected data was therefore analyzed from a social constructionist perspective. As a result the phenomenon definitely raises strong reactions among the professionals and can be seen as a part of a bigger context. The most outstanding conclusion from this study was that all of the interviewed professionals stated that they knew about the phenomena and chose to describe it with a negative emphasize although most of them had never really been in contact with the phenomena. The parents carry the main responsibility for the teenagers’ use of the Internet but the school also has an extensive responsibility role. The teenagers who chooses to upload revealing photos of them selves on internet were described as mainly girls in the lower teens and often with a low self esteem or with some sort of problematic circumstances