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Sexting Education Resource

Today I am sharing a free resource I have made to help teenagers think about the type of images they are sharing online and by direct messages. I class this resource as in BETA, it is just my first attempt at making these images and I want to reshoot the photos. Get rid of the cluttered backgrounds and I need to find a male mannequin to use as well. You can find all the images I use at Sexting Images Resources

I have tested these images in a number of lessons for 14-15 year olds. The way I use them is getting the young people into small groups and asking them to put them in order from most risky images to share to least risky. They create a continuum of risk. Then we talk through a number of follow up questions. 
  • Which images would it be ok to share on social network?
  • Which images might be ok to share by direct message, such as snapchat or MMS?
  • Which images should we never share?
  • Which images do you think could get people into trouble with the police?
  • Which images would be embarrassing if they got passed around school?
  • Which images would you worry about a stranger online getting hold of?
  • Which images would you worry about you parents/carers seeing?
Then a key part of the activity is asking the class to think about what is the motivation of taking or sharing an image. From my experience and from what other educators have told me, motivation is key. Young people can make more balanced (and hopefully safe) choices when they have thought about the underlying motivations. Especially the motivations of why people ask for these photos? what do they want them for? Are they likely to share it?

Already I have found some problems with the photos. Firstly they are all female and I need to sort out some male photos. Second I need to improve the quality of the photos. Thirdly I need to add more photos, such as photos smoking/drinking/drugs or doing crazy stunts or breaking a law. These photos will help to widen the activity beyond the focus on sexting to include other online pitfalls. 

If you are a schools worker, youth worker or teacher and you would like to use the images, please feel free to download them and use them. The only request I have is to give me feedback. If you create any additional images I would love to see them. Like all my work on this site I have released it under a creative commons license. 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.




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US study shows 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext This US study reports that 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext…

US study shows 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext This US study reports that 1 in 10 young people have sent a sext A similar figure to my own study reporting on risky sexual behaviour http://www.esteemresourcenetwork.org/risk-taking-behaviour-sexting . However this study takes a much larger sample and this report goes on to highlight a link between sexting and mental health issues such as depression. The report states that " it shows an association but not a causal relationship" this means that they cannot prove sexting is a cause of mental health issues. The two things may be associated because they have the same or similar causes. For example reckless risk taking (such as sexting) might be linked to issues with self esteem which could also have mental health consequences. Personally I believe that sexting is not a passive consequence but instead I think it is a consequence that feeds back into a young persons complex personal situation often having a negative impact.