Summary
A third of indecent images of children that end up on the web are produced by young people themselves. Nudes, also known as youth-produced sexual imagery (YPSI), are one of the most widespread policing issues affecting 13–17-year-olds in the UK. The pressure on young people to take part can have serious consequences, including reduced self-confidence, difficulties in friendships and relationships, and challenges at school or at home.
Hitch Marketing was commissioned by Surrey Police and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, to develop a Home Office funded project to challenge the normalisation of YPSI.
The ‘OK to Ask?’ campaign focused on preventing the creation and sharing of YPSI. It aimed to shift harmful social norms, reduce pressure to request or share images, and promote respect in young people’s relationships.
Our Approach
Our objectives were to challenge the norms and expectations that facilitate YPSI by presenting not asking for or sending images as an aspirational, positive choice; challenging the perception that ‘asking for images’ is typical or expected; and promoting respectful peer behaviour, including how to respond appropriately if someone says “no”. The campaign also aimed to empower young people to say “no” by giving them tools to manage unwanted requests, reducing fear of shame or rejection.
The campaign was underpinned by Social Norms Theory and sought to target the subjective norms of young people in Surrey. We focused on empowering young people by showing them how they can have control over whether they ask for or send back sexual imagery and persuading them that asking for or sending sexual imagery is not a choice they want to make or aligned with who they want to be. The approach modelled behaviour that is both appealing to young people and shows the skills they need to have in making decisions about whether to ask for images, send an image, and how they act as part of a group in connection to this issue. Young people were encouraged to aspire to these behaviours and increase skills related to this.
In addition, we aimed to educate young people, parents and professionals on what to do if facing peer pressure to ask or are part of a friendship group where this behaviour happens, and what to do if asked – including how to respond and get support.
The resulting campaign sought to challenge a normalised perception, held by some young people, that sending nudes is a common behaviour that lots of people do and that there was little they could do to challenge the behaviour.
Research
The campaign was developed through extensive research with subject matter experts and the target audience. Young people shared their experiences and highlighted the impact of youth-produced sexual imagery on confidence, friendships, and school life. Research methods included in-person and online focus groups, surveys, and a ‘writers’ room’, ensuring a strengths-based, age-appropriate approach that resonated with young people.
Our research findings helped us identify the following audiences:
- the primary audience was boys aged 13–17, with a focus on those aged 13–15;
- the secondary audience was girls aged 13–17;
- and the channel audience included parents and professionals.
Execution
The ‘OK to ask?’ campaign was co-created with young people to ensure authenticity and resonance. Using unbranded content, it portrayed relatable scenarios, including a video featuring Ryan reflecting on asking Jess for a pic, with his friend Jacob advising against it. To protect participants’ anonymity, actors retold young people’s real experiences.
The campaign used TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, and YouTube ads to reach 13–17-year-olds, with additional parent-focused Meta activity and amplification through Surrey Healthy Schools. A dedicated website offered tailored resources for parents, teachers, and professionals, alongside signposting to Surrey Police support services.
Results
Overall, the campaign reached 300,000 accounts, generated over 6 million impressions, and achieved 300,000+ video views with 75% completion rates, with TikTok driving strong organic reach beyond paid activity.
Mid-point evaluation findings
Mid-point evaluation findings showed that youth-produced sexual imagery is highly normalised and often downplayed by young people. Focus groups and social media comments revealed that the content was frequently mocked or trivialised, with young people tagging friends sarcastically – highlighting desensitisation and a lack of recognition of the issue. This reinforced the challenge of addressing this topic via social platforms and emphasised the need to challenge the descriptive norm that sending YPSI is widespread. These insights informed the second phase of research, which focused on shifting subjective views toward the belief that asking for nudes is unacceptable, not something they would do, and that they would support friends who choose not to ask or send.
Project evaluation
The evaluation assessed impact through surveys, workshops, and digital analytics, with success measured against key KPIs. The campaign effectively challenged norms, with 91.9% of young people agreeing it showed them that asking for nudes is not something they want to do, helping shift perceptions that the behaviour is “normal.” It also strengthened empowerment and peer support, with 83.8% feeling encouraged to support friends who say “no” and 56.8% saying they would not feel pressured to send nudes after seeing the campaign. Campaign reach and recall were strong, with 78.4% reporting unprompted recall – well above typical benchmarks -and Snapchat (48.3%) and TikTok (31.0%) performing best. Message clarity and resonance were high, with 94.6% finding the messaging clear and 81.1% agreeing it empowered them not to send a nude.
We also identified that our bespoke workshop was the most successful tool for helping young people consider social norms around this behaviour and giving them the skills to challenge it. A variation of this workshop has been developed by Surrey Healthy Schools for roll out in 2025.
Want to read more?
The theoretical underpinning for the project was shared at the World Social Marketing Conference 2025 in Spain. You can view the poster online.