Warning to high school students over the dangers of ‘sexting’.

By Virginie Mousset

Students at the local high school were some of the first, in the UK, to be shown an educational film over the dangers of ‘sexting’.

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) are promoting the ten minute long film. The film was designed for schoolchildren, and produced in consultation with leading charities and teachers.

 The film that was shown at Stocksbridge High School is aiming to give students the message to “think before you send”, this marked the EU Safer Internet day.

Young people often do not realise that by sending these pictures they could lose control, which could lead to them being victims of bullying. In more extreme cases CEOP has found these in the collection of child sex offenders and their networks.

Peter Davies, Chief Executive of the CEOP Centre said: "We know that young people are increasingly using technology not only to stay in touch, but to explore their sexuality and to push the boundaries in what they send and to whom they send it. It is now so easy to send pictures instantly via emails and texts that we are seeing instances of boys or girls sending sexual images of themselves to others without considering the consequences.”