Sexting: Tips For Professionals
Sharing explicit images of children is illegal even if the person doing it is a child.
England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each have their own legislation on the sharing of sexually explicit images of children. There is also guidance to help professionals respond to sexting incidents.
Part 11 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 makes it a crime to possess inappropriate images of children (whether or not you intend to distribute them).
The legislation in the UK does not define the term "indecent", but details on this are provided in the guidance on prosecution (see below).
Causing distress
Sometimes , young people who have been involved in sexting may have been coerced or blackmailed. the person who was the recipient of their picture may threaten to share it more widely if the child does not send them more. Children may also be concerned that if their relationship ends, the partner they shared their image with could share it in order to get their revenge. There is legislation in the UK to safeguard them from this.
The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, section 33 makes it a crime to share private sexual pictures or films with the purpose of distress.
In Scotland Part 1 of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 makes it a crime to release publicly or threaten to reveal publicly, an intimate photograph or film of another to cause them distress.
Sexual communication
Part 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 makes it illegal to have sexual contact with a child under the age of 16 in all UK countries. This includes communication that is connected to sexual activity and communication with the intent of obtaining sexual gratification (for example, grooming for sexual abuse).
Investigating indecent images
If an image that is indecent of a child shows sexual activity, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 states that the police must investigate to determine whether sexual offences have been committed and take appropriate action. This applies to all areas of the UK.
Key direction
There is guidelines for professionals from different sectors on responding to sexting incidents. This is specifically for sexual images or video content that are created by, or shared by or in the possession of young people under 18. It is not inclusive of sexually explicit messages that do not contain imagery, or sharing of explicit images by adults. This is why the guidance employs the term "youth-produced sexual imagery" to clarify.
Common themes across the guidance include:
- children and young people should not be unnecessarily criminalised for sharing images of sexuality produced by youth agencies should cooperate to share information and advice during investigations and assist in educating children about the risks of sexting.
Schools
In England the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)and UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS), have produced guidance for education settings on children and young people sharing nudes and semi-nudes. The guidance includes:
- Information for all staff and volunteers about what to do if they discover that a child has been involved in sexting
- tips for nominated child protection leads and senior leadership teams about how to respond to an incident of sexting
(DCMS and UKCIS, 2020).
The Welsh Government has published guidance to assist schools in responding to sharing nudes (Welsh Government 2021).
These documents of guidance could provide useful information for schools and other organizations in other countries.
Police
The Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) has released a manual to assist professionals and the public confront incidents of sexting (PDF) (PSNI 2018).
Outcome 21
Every incident of youth-generated sexual images should be reported as a crime. The Home Office launched outcome 21 in January 2016. This allows police officers in England or Wales to document that a crime has occurred but it is not in the public interest for formal criminal justice action to be taken. Although this code is not likely to be revealed in the future, it can be used for future vetting checks. The decision to use outcome 21 should be made by a senior and/or experienced officer.
Outcome 21 might be a suitable solution in cases where:
- a young person's sexting was not abusive or persistent
There is no evidence of exploitation, grooming, profit motives or malicious motive (College of Policing, 2016).
Prosecutors
In England and Wales, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) provides guidelines on sexually explicit and prohibited images of children (CPS 2020). The CPS has also released Guidelines regarding the prosecution of cases involving communications sent via social media (CPS 2018).
As per the guidelines for communicating via social media, it's not in the public's interest to prosecute sexual images shared in a consensual manner with children of similar age. However, prosecution might be appropriate in some other situations, such as grooming, bullying or child sexual exploitation.
The Sentencing Council provides guidance about offence categories for the possession of sexually explicit images of children (Sentencing Council, 2014).
In Northern Ireland, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) includes information on indecent images of children in its information on kinds of sexual offences (PPS 2021).
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of Scotland (COPFS) issued Guidance on cases involving social media communications (PDF, COPFS, 2014). This document outlines the distinctions between communications that are criminal and non-criminal via social media.
This guidance states that children accused of committed crimes are not prosecuted unless they are serious, such as the threat to violence.
Guidance for young people
The Home Office has published guidance to help young people be aware of the law surrounding sharing or making indecent images of children and young people (Home Office, 2019). It explains the legislation around sexting in England and Wales and provides definitions of some commonly used terms and tells young people what to do if they stumble upon indecent images of children online.
