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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Contents Vol 21(1)

The risks and benefits of technologised sexual practice scale: a quantitative measure of technology facilitated sex and intimacy

Lily Moor A , Joel R. Anderson https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3649-2003 A B * , Jennifer Power https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6566-3214 A , Alexandra James A , Andrea Waling https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1370-5600 A and Nicole Shackleton A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health, and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.

B School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.

C La Trobe Law School, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.

* Correspondence to: joel.anderson@latrobe.edu.au

Handling Editor: Weiming Tang

Sexual Health 21, SH23034 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH23034
Submitted: 19 July 2023  Accepted: 28 October 2023  Published: 16 November 2023

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Background

Technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, and sex toys have demonstrated the capacity to facilitate and enhance sexual and intimate practice by offering new ways to meet sexual partners, maintain and establish intimate connections, and providing access to sexual education and exposure to new ways of engaging in sex. They have also afforded novel risks to safety, privacy, and sexual autonomy. Understanding how people perceive and experience both the risks and benefits of using technology to facilitate sex and intimacy is important to understanding contemporary sexual practice, health, and pleasure. However, research in this space is currently hampered by a lack of quantitative measures to accurately and holistically assess both the risks and benefits in the context of technologised sexual practices.

Methods

To facilitate a nuanced quantitative exploration of these concepts, we present the psychometric properties of the newly developed Risks and Benefits of Technologised Sexual Practice Scale.

Results

Using an exploratory (Study 1, n = 445) and confirmatory factor analysis (Study 2, n = 500), this paper presents evidence for a 6-factor scale (Benefits (3): ‘sexual gratification’, ‘connection’, and ‘access to information and culture’; Risks (3): ‘concerns’, ‘worries’, and ‘knowledge of rights and ownership’).

Conclusion

This scale may be used to contribute to research areas including sexual health, sexual behaviour, sexual education, online connection, online safety, and digital literacy with the aim to contribute to a sex- and technology-positive framework for understanding sexual health and pleasure.

Keywords: benefit, intimacy, online dating, risk, sexual practices, technology.

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