‘I think it’s natural’: why has sexual choking become so prevalent among young people?

Erotic asphyxiation is nothing new. Mention the term to anyone over the age of 30 and they’ll likely bring up Michael Hutchence’s 1997 death (which was ultimately determined to be a suicide) or Tim Winton’s 2008 novel Breath, which depicts a teenage boy getting drawn into sexual asphyxiation with an older friend’s wife. Various types of “breath play”, as it’s often referred to in BDSM communities, have been practised since at least the 1700s – it even appears in the Marquis de Sade’s 1791 novel Justine.