Short film on ’sexting’ to be shown in Oz schools

MELBOURNE - Victoria Police is planning to screen a 15-minute film on ’sexting’ in schools in order to stop children from sending sexually explicit images through their mobile phones.

Sergeant Matthew Gildea, of the Bendigo sexual offences and child abuse unit, insists kids as young as 12 have started “sexting”.

The film, ‘Photograph’, has been made in Bendigo with local students.

It tells the tragic story of a 15-year-old girl who agrees to send a sexually explicit photograph of herself to her boyfriend, who distributes it after they break up.

“The use of mobile phones to take these images just highlights how new technologies are making children more and more vulnerable,” The Age quoted Victorian Privacy Commissioner Helen Versey, as saying.

She added: “Children are confiding and communicating with their friends online and don’t realise the potential for that information to be picked up by others.

“We don’t want to stop them using the internet and social networking sites but we want them be conscious of what … the consequences might be.”

Sergeant Gildea insists that children at high school will relate to the video.

He said: ” You can hear a pin drop in the room when the video is playing because the kids relate to it.”

The film will be shown at a national conference on children’s privacy to be held in Melbourne on May 21. (ANI)