With the rise of sexting incidents involving young people, this guidance aims to help schools identify sexting incidents, manage them and escalate appropriately.

Download the SWGFL guidance here

'Snapchat' - it sounds so harmless. Those two syllables denote a world of cute mouse ears, rainbow symbols and facial distortion filters that burst onto our smartphones as messages for a matter of seconds, before disappearing forever. The app now seems to be as common among 50-somethings as millennials (judging from my friends’ parents who have just discovered the #LOL filters).

The only time we hear a negative report of the app, is when it's used by teens to sext. That’s when alarm bells start ringing - mainly for parents and teachers, often at a loss to know how to stop kids exploring their sexuality on social media.

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A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a sexting scandal after pupils at a leading public school were duped into posting explicit selfies online.
Parents at £29,000-a-year Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire were reportedly warned that 42 pupils were targeted.

In September 2015 the National Police Chief Council released a statement on the procedure they have to take when a ‘sexting’ incident is reported to the police. As a result South West Grid for Learning and the UK Safer Internet Centre have updated their advice for schools when responding and managing a sexting incident into two infographics.

Access the infographics here

A woman has received £25,000 in compensation in the first award of damages for a civil case involving sexting.

The woman was encouraged as a 16-year-old schoolgirl to send naked photographs of herself to a teacher at the New School, a private school near Sevenoaks in Kent.

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'Nude Selfies: What Parents and Carers Need to Know' is a series of four short animated films for parents and carers offering advice on how to help keep their children safe from the risks associated with sharing nude and nearly nude images.

The films aim to help parents and carers:

• Understand young people's motivations for sending nude selfies.
• Plan to respond positively and constructively to an incident in which their child has shared a nude selfie.
• Gain confidence and skills in initiating preventative conversations.
• Identify risky behaviours or situations and know where to seek help.
• Know how to get help if a child is at risk after sharing an image.