Sexting: what parents should know

Many are unaware that peer-to-peer sexting is a criminal offence and can get a child listed on the sex offenders’ register. Parents and carers should know how to support a child who has received or sent an explicit image, video or message, or had one shared without their consent. Here we discuss the current sexting landscape, and what we can do about it.

First, what is sexting?

Sexting is defined as the activity of sending text messages that are about sex or intended to sexually excite someone[1]. The term has come to include the sending of provocative words, audio, image and video, as well as the act of requesting content of a sexual nature.

The numbers

In 2019, the Guardian reported that over 6000 children under 14 had been investigated by police for sexting over a three year period. According to the BBC, a total of 353 children aged between six and 13 were considered sexting suspects between January 2017 and August 2019.

Data from the National Police Chief’s Council shows that sexting offences increased 131% between 2014/15 and 2016/17 from 2700 to 6238, and we can assume this number is only rising in current screen-led society.

While stats show that boys and girls are involved in sexting in roughly equal measure, the vast majority of victims portrayed in the material are girls.

The law

According to the Youth Justice Legal Centre, “Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) 2003 requires those convicted or cautioned of certain sexual offices to notify the police of certain personal details. The police keep this information on the Violent and Sex Offender Register (VISOR) – commonly known as the ‘sex offender register’. When a child is convicted of one of the sexting offences described above, the notification requirements are only triggered if the child receives a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more. The relevant age is that of the child on the date of the offence.” And, there are grey areas: sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds will be committing an offence if they only sext one another, but not if they actually have sexual intercourse.

While it is at their discretion how far they take it, police will create a crime record for any incident of sexting that is reported. In 2016, Outcome 21 was introduced: this permits the police to record a crime as having occurred but for no formal criminal justice action to be taken. Its application to sexting reports has resulted in a dramatic drop in formal charges.

What you can do

Many sharing apps themselves are regularly updating their parental control options. Keep up to date on this and set up the strongest privacy settings and filters you can on both app and device.

There are third party parental control apps that can support your child’s safety in regard to sexting. Qustodio allows you to turn off file sharing and chat but does not track social media apps. Apps like MMGuardian and Bark can scan both received and saved media for nudity, and track messaging to keep parents in the loop. You will need to go into the detail of how they do this and the degree of thoroughness they can achieve. Google Family Link does not monitor messages.

The best line of prevention here is talking with your children. Explain the law to them and keep the channels of communication open. You could start by mentioning something from the news or a story you’ve heard as a way into the discussion. Listen to what they tell you without shaming or blaming, and let them know they can trust you to receive any information they might share with patience and understanding.

[1] Cambridge Dictionary Online, 2023