Art of Safe Sexting to teach Victorian schoolgirls how to safely send ‘sexy snaps’

SCHOOLGIRLS as young as 12 will be taught how to safely send “sexy snaps” via texts and social media, including cropping out their heads in nude images.

SCHOOLGIRLS as young as 12 will be taught how to safely send “sexy snaps” via texts and social media, including cropping out their heads in nude images.

An online educational tool being recommended for use in classrooms suggests “sexts” should crop out anything that “makes it obvious it’s you”, so the students could later deny sending the explicit photo.

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The “Art of Safe Sexting” program, which is taught to girls from year 7 to year 10, was on Friday heavily criticised as being “flaky” and handing out misinformation.

But the program’s designer said some students were always going to engage in sexting and educators needed to take a “harm minimisation” approach.

The online video teaches “sexting done right” and then discusses options, including to only do it sober and not to share other people’s images or videos without permission.

It also gives advice about being aware of the risks, consent, avoiding being pressured, and talking to authorities about unwanted sexts.

“If you still wanna send a pic, try to crop out anything that makes it obvious that it’s you. So leave out your face, your favourite necklace and tattoos so, if you need to, you can deny that image is you,” the video said.

“Sexting is a sober activity. Drugs or alcohol can make us less inhibited and more likely to do things we usually wouldn’t do.”

It also makes reference to how nude pics of Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna surfaced years after they were sent.

“Once we send these things, we have little control over where they end up,” it said. “So for now, it might be better to just indulge in some flirty banter.”

Program author and lead teacher at Fitzroy High School Briony O’Keefe said sexting was a fact of life among young people and simply telling them not to do it did not work.

“The fact sexting is tricky doesn’t mean we should give up on talking about it,” she said. “We know they are going to engage in it, so a harm minimisation approach is really important.” Ms O’Keefe said the message from teachers should be “we know you are going to do this, here are the ways to do it as safely as possible — which many often don’t know”.

Education Minister James Merlino slammed the advice, which was not endorsed by the Department of Education.

“These (the sexting tips) are not appropriate,” he said. “The Department of Education has a clear policy and resources on sexting that are available for teachers, students and parents.”

Former Victoria Police “cyber cop” Susan McLean, who was part of a committee who overhauled Victoria’s sexting laws, said there was no safe way to send a naked image as the risk remained the same and described the information on the site as “flaky”.

Opposition Education spokesman Tim Smith said he was “appalled”, saying kids should be taught to read and write and spend “less time on these types of sordid distractions”.

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