Young peoples’ perceived benefits and barriers of sexual health promotion on social media - a literature review

Abstract

Sexual behavior and related sexual health issues among young people present major public health concerns all over the world, and therefore, effective health promotion for younger age groups is needed. Social media is considered a promising platform to engage young people with sexual health. However, current research highlights not only the potential but also the concerns about the use of social media for sexual health-related topics. Therefore, the study reviewed the existing literature to identify young people’s perceived benefits and barriers. The review only included qualitative approaches to gain a deeper insight into the perspective of the target group. The search and selection process followed the PRISMA approach and resulted in eight studies that were included in the final analysis. In conclusion, all studies show that the use of social media is a new way of promoting sexual health and creates many opportunities to reach out to younger age groups. The most frequently reported benefits identified in this review are the use of entertainment, easy and fast access, interaction, and the use of platform-specific features. On the contrary, perceived barriers are privacy concerns, lack of control, unsuitability of social media for sexual health issues, and the rapid change of technologies. The results demonstrate the variety of perceived benefits and barriers of sexual health promotion on social media. This exploration of young people’s perspectives provides valuable insights for sexual health educators, future sexual health promotion on social media, and future research.