Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault Pornography and Sexual Violence While Partying: Cross-Sectional Study

Drug-facilitated sexual assaults (DFSAs) in youth partying contexts represent a growing public health concern, affecting approximately half of women and 1 in 4 men. These assaults often occur in environments where alcohol and other psychoactive substances are consumed, leading to impaired consent and increased vulnerability. At the same time, young people are increasingly exposed to pornography, often using it as a primary source of sexual information. However, pornography can disseminate misleading or harmful messages about sexuality and consent. Of particular concern is a subtype of pornographic material (hereafter referred to as DFSA pornography) that depicts nonconsensual sexual acts involving individuals who are asleep, unconscious, or under the influence of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and other drugs.

This study aimed to examine the prevalence of DFSA pornography consumption among young adults in Spain and analyze its association with self-reported DFSA perpetration and victimization in party settings.

A cross-sectional online survey (computer-assisted web interviewing) was conducted among individuals aged 18 to 35 years residing in Spain. Participants (N=1601; n=1534, 95.8% valid responses) were recruited from a certified online panel using quota sampling stratified by sex, age group, and region to ensure national representativeness. The questionnaire was adapted from the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization and the Spanish Macro-Survey on Violence Against Women. It assessed DFSA perpetration and victimization in partying contexts under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A specific variable, DFSA pornography, was created to measure intentional viewing of explicit sexual content depicting unconscious or intoxicated individuals. Additional sociodemographic variables included sex, age, educational level, sexual orientation, political ideology, nationality, and socioeconomic level. Descriptive, bivariate, and binary logistic regression analyses were performed, estimating associations between DFSA experiences and both general and DFSA pornography consumption.

Among respondents (800/1593, 50.2% female participants; mean age 27.0, SD 5.1 years), 78.4% (1233/1572) identified as heterosexual, and 52% (825/1587) held a university degree. Overall, 66.6% (1013/1521) reported consuming pornography in the previous year, with higher prevalence among male participants (638/753, 84.7%) than among female participants (370/762, 48.6%). DFSA pornography consumption was reported by 22.2% (167/753) of male participants and 11.3% (86/762) of female participants, and increased with overall pornography use frequency. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that DFSA perpetration (adjusted odds ratio 3.78, 95% CI 1.72-8.28; P<.001) and victimization (adjusted odds ratio 1.86, 95% CI 1.24-2.78; P=.003) were associated with DFSA pornography consumption.

The findings reveal an association between exposure to DFSA pornography and both DFSA perpetration and victimization among young people in Spain. These results underscore the need for comprehensive sexual education that critically addresses pornography as a source of misinformation, emphasizing accurate understanding of consent and substance-impaired sexual activity. Public health strategies should integrate media literacy and consent education to mitigate the normalization of sexual violence depicted in pornography.