ABSTRACT:
This study is based on research with Brazilian youth aged 18 to 24, whose objectives are to understand and analyze the sexual uses of the internet by adolescents and young people and their repercussions on the affective-sexual trajectory of these subjects. It seeks to identify the different uses that these groups make of virtual environments in relation to sexuality, including social networks, dating sites, forums, content sharing, and pornography consumption, as well as to understand how such practices are linked to the processes of affective and sexual initiation, sexual experimentation, and the construction of self and sexual identities. Based on the concept that digital environments are privileged spaces for experimentation and the development of desire, identity, and sexuality, the research addresses practices such as the search for information, the sharing of intimate content, and sexual interaction mediated by digital technologies. The first stage of the research, to be presented here, was an online questionnaire disseminated through social networks, answered by 955 young people of different genders and sexual orientations. The responses point to widespread sexual use, with early contact with sexual content on the internet. The internet is the medium par excellence for searching for information about sexuality, surpassing friends and family. Although most respondents have access to pornography, its consumption is marked by ambiguities, with feelings of guilt and attempts to reduce it. The internet has become an unprotected reservoir of meaning and values for young people. Thus, the repercussions that sexual images and content disseminated on the internet can produce are not negligible, but they are still unknown, given the power they have over those who are beginning their sexual and emotional lives.