We are still almost digesting what is the cyberbullying and what it means when our concerns are extended with a new form of cyberbullying: sexting which also extends among children of an age that still surprises us and worries us more.
7 year old children sharing sexually explicit images, what are we talking about?
The data are from a survey conducted a few months ago between British teachers of courses equivalent to the primary education stage of our country and the data, are simply chilling.
We talk about children up to 7 years exchanging sexually explicit images, something already sadly very common among students aged 13 to 16 but 7 years? why?
Around 1,300 teachers were asked for this survey and yes, the vast majority have recognized being aware of this trend in one way or another among their students.
Sexting in Britain seems in view of these data, which is acquiring pest dimensions, it is an epidemic that the authorities have no cure or knowledge to overcome, so it can be seen from the responses of British teachers .
And what is more worrisome, the age at which this harassment begins to suffer has dropped painfully, 13% of the cases that are known of sexting in Great Britain already occur among children between 7 and 10 years.
Childhood lasts less and British teachers feel helpless in the face of this new social phenomenon.
Dangerous innocence
Children, because with seven and eight years there is no doubt that we are talking about girls and boys, taking selfies naked or taking betrayal photos of their peers in the toilets, they are already too frequent.
Like the diffusion through social networks of the first sexual experiences in adolescence or some in pre-adolescence.
Sexting exposes minors to the harassment of their own classmates, it's true but what is worse, places children in the target of possible sexual abuse, something that they obviously are not aware of.
Maybe is The most painful form of digital harassment for children, these are intimate images accompanied by denigrating, humiliating and insulting comments.
Stories there are thousands, as of a girl who agrees to go out with a classmate in particular just by taking a picture of her genitals and sharing it with common friends or another girl who by ignorance agrees to send a nude selfie to Snapchat believing that this image He was going to disappear in a few seconds but from which a classmate from his school took a picture and distributed it throughout his school.
The cases unfortunately are many, more than we imagine as adults, as parents and especially many more than those that are being managed by the competent authorities, more than they should in any case.
Report and prevent
All levels that work for children in Britain, from associations to the teachers themselves, have encouraged report cases of harassment and abuse linked to sexting Because of not doing so, many of the children who are victims or who know him because his friends suffer, may come to think that it is a practice that is part of their daily life and is not so.
Social networks are not bad by themselves, but just as we do not put our children behind the wheel, to drive a car if they are not of the right age or have not got the driving license Why don't we offer them the same education, the same requirement of maturation and knowledge, to interact through social networks?
