The scourge of sexting in schools

Teachers say that last year there were five times as many reports of students sending unwanted suxually explicit photos to classmates than in 2012.

THE scourge of sexting in public schools is becoming a major concern for parents.

Teachers say that last year there were five times as many reports of students sending unwanted suxually explicit photos to classmates than in 2012.

A report by the Department of Education says there were just 10 incidents reported in 2012, but the number soared to 54 last year.

In one incident at a southwest Sydney school in 2012, a Year 9 girl uploaded a naked image of herself on a website.

A female student from ­another school saw the image, took a photo of it, and sent it to another student — who sent it to everyone in her mobile phone contacts.

In a 2013 incident in the New England region, a teacher overheard male students talking about “inappropriate” photos being sent by a female student. Police were called to the school after it was discovered the girl had “multiple, ­inappropriate photographs of unknown males” in her phone.

Major concern: Sexting is becoming a major concern for parents. Picture: Thinkstock

In another 2013 incident a southern Sydney female student sent a naked picture of herself to her boyfriend, who sent the photo to students at various neighbouring schools when the relationship soured.

Opposition education spokesman Ryan Park said the state government was not doing enough to warn students of the dangers of sexting: “The government needs to ensure that students are getting a very clear message about the dangers of posting and sending ­explicit photographs of themselves on phones.’’

He urged the government to ensure that schools had the resources to help students and parents understand the short- and long-term harm they could cause themselves by taking and sending such images: “We need to look at investing in a targeted campaign to help with this awareness.”

A DoE spokesman said the number of incidents was small compared to the number of students in public schools.

“Incidents of this nature are taken seriously but remain very rare. It is important to note there were 766,335 students in NSW public schools in 2013. The number of these ­incidents is 0.007 per cent of the student population, or one incident per 14,191 students,” the spokesman said.