A teenage girl dies from strangulation during sex. Porn and social media must be held to account

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After she was allegedly strangled during consensual sex with her boyfriend, a 16-year-old girl from Sydney’s northern beaches died in hospital this week. Her death is a tragedy in so many ways.

This could be understood simply as another example of a life cut short as part of the pandemic of women killed at the hands of an intimate partner. But the reality is more complicated.

It is impossible to fathom the devastation of the young woman’s family and friends. Her reportedly distraught boyfriend faces serious consequences, including potential criminal charges, although there have been none as yet. Regardless of the legal process that will unfold, this teenage boy and his own distressed family also face the lifelong prospect of trying to make sense of how this sexual encounter ended in the death of his childhood sweetheart.

Yet the greater culprits lie elsewhere. The boy apparently was enacting a sexual script that has been normalised by online pornography, social media influencers and their enablers within broader culture.

To the astonishment of many people over a certain age, sexual strangulation, or “choking” as it is........

© The Age