In the UK today, new figures were released for underage "sexting" offences in 2016-17, which totaled some 6,200 instances for England and Wales, or at a rate of 17 a day.
Stunningly enough, police has reported that kids as young as 10 years old are participating.
The National Police Chiefs' Council lead for child protection, Mr Simon Bailey, admitted there is a worrying trend amongst children: "I am concerned about the impact that exposure to extreme pornography can have on children so we need to consider if a lack of universal relationship and sex education is compounding the problem."
His department feels that if these figures continue to rise for the whole year of 2017, there would definitely be a need to for children ' to be taught about pornography and sexting'. According to him, the younger you grant your child a mobile phone, the younger it will discover pornography.
Mr Bailey: "Sharing and possessing these images is against the law. Once an image is shared with others it can cause deep embarrassment and distress."
Schools in the UK needed to do more to counteract the influence of pornography, according to the report released by the Council for child protection.
"Forces are risk-assessing every case to ensure we are not unnecessarily stigmatising children and saddling them with a criminal record. But there will always be a criminal investigation where we see that young people are being coerced, exploited or blackmailed.
The rise in sexting incidents is "extremely worrying", according to Mr Bailey, and "it is vital that parents and schools talk to children about the dangers of sexting as soon as they are given any technology".
As stated earlier, police confirmed reports coming from children as young as ten, with cases peaking around the age of 14. Boys are now just as likely as girls to be recorded as suspects or perpetrators (however girls remain the larger part of the victims category).
During the school holidays of July and August, there is a substantial decrease in cases.
Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5053781/Children-young-10-sexting-cases-DOUBLE.html
