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A growing number of British teenagers are swapping sexually explicit images of themselves on mobile phones leaving them open to bullying and victimization by their peers, police and a children's charity said on Tuesday.
The practice, known as "sexting," has also resulted in intimate images of children being posted on websites used by pedophiles without the knowledge of the sender, according to Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP).
"We are getting an increasing number of reports from the public, children and parents alike, who are concerned about this kind of behavior," said Helen Penn, head of education at CEOP, a law enforcement agency tied to the British police.
Penn said advances in mobile phone technology, including Bluetooth, and the ability to post a picture or video on the internet at the click of a button, was making the practice more widespread with unforeseen consequences.
"If a relationship breaks down or someone finds that phone, then the image could end up on a website, a social networking site like Facebook, or could even end up in the wrong hands, as has happened, and end up on a pedophile network," Penn said.
A survey of 2,000 young people released by children's charity Beatbullying on Tuesday found that more than a third of 11 to 18-year-olds had received a sexually explicit text or email.
It also found that 70 percent of young people knew who had sent the message.
Chief executive of Beatbullying, Emma-Jane Cross, said it was important parents and schools understood the rise of the phenomenon, which was well documented in the United States and Australia, but comparatively unknown in Britain.
Girls were particularly vulnerable, the charity said, with evidence showing they were being bullied into taking and sharing intimate pictures by boyfriends.
CEOP's Penn said another key issue that had been overlooked is that children holding, or distributing indecent images of a person under 18 to someone else, could be breaking the law.
A survey of 70 young people aged 11 to 16 by CEOP's youth panel found that almost all of those questioned had no idea that holding on to the images or distributing them could be breaking the 2003 Sexual Offences Act.
"Obviously the law wasn't set up to prosecute children. It was set up to prosecute adults who were distributing this kind of image...but if they're (children) doing it maliciously, there are grounds perhaps to look at it as (a case of) harassment," Penn said.
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(Agencies)
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警方和一家兒童慈善機構本周二稱，越來越多的英國青少年通過手機互發自己的色情照片，這讓他們很容易受到同齡人的欺侮和誘騙。
這種行為被稱作“sexting”（發性短信），據英國在線兒童保護組織介紹，在發送者不知情的情況下，一些兒童的私人照片會被戀童癖者放到網站上。
在線兒童保護組織的教育部主管海倫?佩恩說：“我們從公眾那里收到的舉報越來越多，不管是孩子還是父母，都對這種行為很憂心。” 在線兒童保護組織是和英國警方有聯系的一家執法機構。
佩恩說藍牙等手機技術不斷進步，并且鼠標一按就能把照片和視頻傳到網絡上，這讓性短信的發送日益流行，而其后果也是無法預料的。
“如果一段關系結束了，或是有人找到了那個手機，那么這個圖片就有可能被放在網站上，比如像Facebook這樣的社交網站，也有可能落到危險人物的手里，被放到戀童癖網站上，這種情況也發生過。”佩恩說。
英國反青少年欺凌慈善機構本周二發布的對2000個青少年的調查發現，在11到18歲的青少年中，有三分之一以上的人曾收到過色情短信或電子郵件。
這項調查還發現有70%的青少年知道發送該短信的人是誰。
反青少年欺凌慈善機構總裁愛瑪-簡?克羅斯說，父母和學校應該了解這種現象不斷增多，這很重要。美國和澳大利亞對于這種現象都有充分的記錄，但是在英國還比較罕為人知。
該慈善機構說，女孩尤其容易受傷，有證據顯示她們曾被男朋友強迫拍攝和分享私密照片。
在線兒童保護組織的佩恩說，另一個容易被忽視的關鍵問題是：如果兒童持有或散播未成年人的不良圖片是犯法的。
由在線兒童保護組織青年組發起的對70個年齡在11到16歲之間的青少年的調查發現，幾乎所有被調查對象都不知道持有和散播那些照片違反了2003年發布的《性侵犯法案》。
佩恩說：“很明顯，頒布這一法律不是為了懲處兒童，而是為了懲處那些散播這種圖片的成年人……但是如果他們（兒童）惡意散播色情圖片，我們有理由把這看作是一種騷擾。”
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美國青少年性教育缺失 大多數不與父母談性
英國中學和大學開設性健康咨詢室
（英語點津 陳丹妮編輯） |
A text message is typed into a phone in a file photo.(Agencies)
