Nearly half of sexually active under-18s in UK said to have experienced strangulation

More than two in five sexually active under-18s in the UK have been strangled or have strangled someone during sex, despite the serious dangers of the practice, research shows.

- Robyn Vinter North of England correspondent

"Choking", as it is commonly known, has become normalised in young people's sexual habits, according to a study by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (Ifas), with 43% of sexually active 16and 17-year-olds having experienced it.

More than half of under-35s have also experienced it, with nearly a third wrongly believing that there are safe ways to strangle someone. The survey also showed that more perpetrators of strangulation believed their actions to be consensual than those on the receiving end, 1% of whom said they had explicitly not agreed to it the last time it happened.

Harriet Smailes, the author of the report and research manager at Ifas, said the study should "raise questions around influences and feelings of choice in practising strangulation during sex".