“It’s awful and scary and you wouldn’t expect it.”
A mum in the UK has shared her horror at finding some very adult messages on her 10-year-old daughter’s phone.
The woman told Metro that her daughter came to her in tears over the messages from her ‘boyfriend’ at school.
At that point the daughter’s phone rang and her mother answered it. It was the girl’s classmate.
“He was calling her a ‘s**g’ and put the phone down, he didn’t realise it was me.”
After the call, the woman looked thought the phone and found some inappropriate messages in the girl’s Instagram direct messages from the boy, including one asking to “get more sexual”.
“Some of the stuff he was saying wasn’t anything you’d expect a 10-year-old to know,” the woman said.
The boy also sent explicit photos to the girl and had pressured her to send him one by threatening to dump her.
“She didn’t really know much better,” the girl’s mum said.
It’s like she just wanted to please and not offend him or be nasty. She’s embarrassed and worried her friends might have found out.’
“Everyone needs to be aware that this happens. It’s awful and scary and you wouldn’t expect it.”
Humberside Police’s Protecting Vulnerable Children Unit confirmed that it has spoken to the families involved.
One in four Irish teenagers have sexted, according to a 2016 survey, putting Ireland fourth in Europe in this regard.
Children as young as nine are also engaging in the practice, the ISPCC warned last year.
Caroline O’Sullivan, the organisation’s Director of Services, said that sexting is becoming the norm with tweens and teens and that the pressure it puts on kids is impacting on their mental health.
The HSE’s B4UDecide website has guidelines on teenage sexting. Check them out here.
