The use of social media has changed the nature of communication in relationships and is integral in shaping the landscape of young people's peer and intimate relationships. The COVID-19 global pandemic has further raised the need for daily virtual communication during periods of national lockdowns, due to restricted space and rights to meet on a faceto-face basis. There is an increasingly blurred line between the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ contexts of all relationships but, in particular, intimate relationships. Mobiles and social networking are fundamental elements of young peoples’ relationships, with online and offline symmetries in control mechanisms and distinct forms of online exploitation identified. Rapid developments in social media technologies further perpetuate this trend, with the use and ownership of various social media tools necessary to facilitate the dominant digital social communication of everyday life. As the nature of interpersonal communication has shifted with the widespread use of the internet and mobile phones, so has the possibility for emotional abuse, specifically, the ability to monitor movements. Not only has social media ensured that information is easily accessible, it has also provided a means for surveillance and constant communication.

The social media and internet era has brought its uses and limitations for young people. The use of social media invades all aspects of everyday life through the continued use of it to form online/offline relationships, very much pervasive for the new media generation. Evidence suggests that, while young people can access good quality sexual health information, they are also increasingly accessing sexually explicit and pornographic material (Tanton et al, 2015). Research has highlighted the regularity of exposure and access to pornography, with young men generally viewing it positively (Martellozzo et al, 2016), while it has been argued that young women view its consumption as uncomfortable and distasteful (Horvath et al, 2013). Significant concerns have also been identified regarding the coercive nature of teenage relationships and the confusion between ‘caring’ and ‘controlling’ behaviour (Barter et al, 2009), further perpetuated by ‘sexting’ and the frequent viewing of pornography (Stanley et al, 2016), reflecting wider sexual pressures. The continued exposure and gendered consumption of pornography maintains both sexist attitudes and sexual coercion through its unrealistic and unloving image of sex (Flood, 2009).