A new chapter by the Media Psychology and Media Design Group at TU Ilmenau has been published in the 2025 special issue of Theorie und Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit (TUP). The contribution outlines how digital media shape adolescents’ experiences of love, desire, and relationships.
It focuses on three key areas of digital sexual development: sexual information seeking (e.g., via search engines, social media, or AI tools such as ChatGPT), sexual stimulation (including pornography and online romance platforms), and sexual contact seeking (such as chatting and sexting). The chapter highlights both opportunities – including empowerment, increased visibility of sexual diversity, and accessible sexual education – and challenges such as misinformation, performance pressure, and digital boundary violations. It concludes with practice-oriented recommendations for social work professionals to strengthen young people’s sexual and media literacy and to protect their rights in digital environments.
- Döring, N. (2025). Liebe und Sexualität in Zeiten in Zeiten von Pornhub, TikTok und ChatGPT. Herausforderungen und Chancen für junge Menschen [Love and sexuality in the age of Pornhub, TikTok, and ChatGPT: challenges and opportunities for young people]. In C. Mandrysch & M. Deversi (Hrsg.), Unsichere Zeiten, starke Stimmen. Junge Menschen als Wegbereiter für Vielfalt und Demokratie (S. 70-77). Sonderband 2025 von TUP (Theorie und Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit). Beltz Juventa.