Child Sexting Doubles in 2 Years

Child Sexting Doubles in 2 Years

Child sexting cases have more than doubled in two years, with police now investigating 17 incidents daily and the NSPCC insisting that parents and schools advise kids on the dangers as soon as they have access to technology.

Police forces in England and Wales recorded 6,238 under-age sexting offences in 2016/17, and say they have had reports from children as young as ten.

While social networks need to remove indecent images far more quickly in line with police demands, we also need to be educating youngsters of the dangers of putting indecent images online in the first place. Police want parents, and particularly schools, to act, especially as reported offences declined markedly in August, when children were not in school.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, says: “There is a worrying upward trend. Sharing and possessing these images is against the law. Once an image is shared with others it can cause deep embarrassment and distress.”

He says that schools need to do more in counteracting the influence of pornography, with under-18s sharing indecent or prohibited images up by a third on the 4,681 offences of the previous year, a 131% rise on 2014-15, with 2,700 incidents.

Police say the youngest involved in sexting enquiries were only 10, while offences investigated was at its peak among 14-year-olds. Girls are more likely to be victims, but suspects or perpetrators were even between boys and girls.

The College of Policing has introduced new guidance after concerns that teenagers might be criminalised by laws on sexting. The College advised that while officers should record all cases of under-18s sharing images of themselves or other children as crimes, formal action only needs to be taken where there is exploitation, coercion or wider child protection issues.

In 2016/17, there were more than 2,000 of these cases where police decided that further action was not in the public interest. “Forces are risk-assessing every case to ensure we are not unnecessarily stigmatising children and saddling them with a criminal record,” says Simon Bailey. “But there will always be a criminal investigation where we see that young people are being coerced, exploited or blackmailed.”

The NSPCC considers rise in sexting incidents extremely worrying and say it’s vital that parents and schools talk to children about the dangers of sexting as soon as they are given any technology.