Sexual Strangulation Becoming More Popular Among Young People, Say Researchers Warning of Brain Injury

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo illustration of a couple holding hands in bed.Photo:Getty Images

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Strangulation during sex is nothing new, but a study conducted in Australia this summer has found that a large portion of young people surveyed have participated in the act.

According to the study, 59% of men and 40% of women surveyed said they strangled a partner during sex, whereas 78% of “trans or gender-diverse” people reported being strangled during sex. While there are no previous studies or statistics in Australia to compare the July study to, according toThe Guardian, researchers told the outlet that they’ve seen an increase in young people mentioning sexual strangulation.

“Over the last few years, young people spoke incredibly frequently about strangulation, or ‘choking’,” Maree Crabbe, a co-founder of It’s Time We Talked, an Australian violence prevention project, toldThe Guardian. “They often referred to it as a mainstream practice, and that was new.”

Photo illustration of a couple in bed.Getty

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Sexual strangulation involves a serious risk of death, and the Australia study also points specifically to the risk of brain injury and memory loss. “It doesn’t matter if there are no apparent injuries, or whether the person consented,” co-author and domestic violence expert Heather Douglas of Melbourne University Law School said in a release at the time.

“Brain injury can also be incremental — getting a bit worse with each choking — and the person may not know they have suffered a brain injury. The effects of repeated strangling are insidious and build over time, like the effects of repeated concussions on footballers.”

The Guardianalso reports that clear consent can be difficult to provide when engaging in such behavior, with Douglas noting of the recent survey that a “safe word” or “safe gesture” can be difficult to convey during sexual strangulation. Alice Birbara, a 30-year-old actor from New South Wales, told the outlet that she once experienced nonconsensual sexual strangulation when a man on a dating app “assumed my consent was there because we texted about it two days or so earlier.”

Birbara added that the pair agreed to a “safe gesture," but he had her arm pinned so she couldn’t stop him. “It’s all very complex, thorny stuff but I can say wholeheartedly that there’s no safe way to choke,” she said. “And the risk is just not worth it. Because there’s just so many other fun things to do that are nowhere near as risky.”

Speaking toThe Guardian, a man named Anthony told the outlet that he chokes his partner — who he’s been with for 10 years — roughly one in every 10 times that they have sex. “It was like, ‘Oh, OK, like, this is a nice thing,” he said of the first time they tried it. “She likes this. And it’s kind of getting me in the mood as well.’”

Still, Anthony explained that knowing potential consequences for sexual choking “freaks” him out, and that he’s spoken to others “that are just like, ‘More, more, more, more, more, more’ [pressure]. And I’m like, ‘Woah. No, thank you.’”

According to the study, those surveyed most commonly discovered sexual strangulation through porn (61%), while 40% found out through film, 32% found out through peers, 31% found out through social media and an additional 29% learned through discussing it with partners.

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Douglas added that, while “people should be able to engage in whatever they want to do, if it’s consensual and talked-through and everybody wants to do it and it’s feeling good for people,” strangulation is “a rather particular thing.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

source: people.com