Parents urged to warn daughters of ‘sexting’ dangers

Officers from Humberside Police say the use of mobile phones by girls aged between 14 and 17 to send pictures or text messages is featuring more frequently when they investigate alleged rape cases.

Although the youngsters think they are sending the pictures for “one pair of eyes only”, the images are shown to friends or uploaded to a social networking websites.

The police, who are in the second week of a rape awareness campaign, say they have seen more girls who report rapes who have been in contact with their alleged assailants on Facebook or MSN or have been texting them before the attacks.

Detective Sergeant Nicki Miller, who heads the sex offences team in North Lincolnshire, said: “It’s not just the offence that is the problem; it is how far the message it sent. Many of the girls think that the only person to see that message will be the person it is sent to and in many cases how wrong they are.

“The message frequently gets shown to their friends, put on a social network site and before they know it everyone has seen the explicit image.”

Det Sgt Miller said boys or men found in possession of explicit images of a minor could be charged with a sexual offence that could see them going on the sex offences register – with an impact on the rest of their lives.

She said: “For parents, there is a lot of information available on the internet about how to make your computer secure.

“A little conversation with your child can make all the difference and we encourage parents to remind children of the dangers ‘sexting’ and the impact it can have on their lives.

“We appreciate that this message does not apply to all people in this age range, but we feel that by delivering the message on a large scale we can help to reduce the number of incidents of rape or sexual offences being committed,” she added.