Objective:

Estimate lifetime prevalence of technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) and other coercive sexual acts among women in Iceland, overall and by age.

Approach:

• Design and participants: Cross-sectional analysis of 14,358 women in the Icelandic Stress-and-Gene-Analysis cohort who completed a 2024 follow-up survey.
• Measures: Participants reported whether they had experienced specified TFSV and coercive sexual acts; prevalence was assessed overall and across five age groups.

Key Findings:

• Unwanted sexual images or messages were the most frequently reported TFSV experience (24.9%), followed by unwanted requests for sexual images (18.4%) and persistent requests for dates or sex after refusals (15.8%).
• Lifetime prevalence was 6.0% for stealthing, 5.0% for nonconsensual choking or suffocation during sex, and 18.1% for nonconsensual drugging; 10.8% suspected drugging and 7.3% reported it.
• Prevalence was higher among younger participants. Among women aged 23 to 34 years, 60.7% reported unwanted sexual images, 50.3% unwanted requests for sexual images, and 33.9% nonconsensual drugging.

Interpretation:

The authors report frequent lifetime experiences of TFSV and other coercive sexual acts, with pronounced age differences. They describe this as Iceland’s first nationwide investigation of these events.

Limitations:

• Recall and selection bias are possible.
• The item on persistent unwanted requests did not explicitly specify technology.
• Motivations for suspected drugging were unavailable, so not all incidents could be determined to be sexually motivated.
• Generalizability may be limited because participants were predominantly White, heterosexual, urban, and of moderate socioeconomic status.

Conclusion:

The authors call for repeated population-based assessments across countries to evaluate temporal and contextual variation and associated health consequences.

Sources:

• Jama Network Open