The invisible harms of strangulation

We’ve been developing the Breathless campaign for a couple of years now and over that time we’ve spoken with a lot of young people about sexual strangulation, and also with researchers and medical experts.

The resounding message from young people was that strangulation (which they often refer to as ‘choking’) is now considered a normal and expected part of their sexual experiences, and something many believed can be done safely. While most young people are aware of the risk of death, many are not aware of the many other risks associated with applying pressure to someone’s neck.

Most young people (61%) learn about strangulation through pornography. This raises questions about having a multibillion-dollar industry shaping our sexual experiences in ways that puts young peoples’ lives at risk.

Young people deserve to have accurate information from trustworthy sources to counter the information they’re getting from porn and from other unqualified or unregulated sources, such as social media.

In this short excerpt from our interview with brain trauma researcher Associate Professor Kei Kawata, he explains that the harms from sexual strangulation can be both invisible and significant.