Teenage boys' sexual harassment of teenage girls

I think we need to be very clear that no means no. Whether that's kids pestering for sweets/TV, messing around and one of them says stop it hurts or any kind of intimate/sexual encounter.

It's something that I take seriously, and I am both a teacher and a mother. The word no isn't used too often, but when it is, that's the final line and there is no negotiation about it.

I really do think we need to hammer that message home, especially for youngsters about their bodies. No, I don't want to try drink or drugs or sex or anything I am uncomfortable with should be something that they are able to say and that is respected.

Allowing children to view porn IS legally classed as neglect and therefore abuse -and if it's encouraged that is straightforward child sex abuse. If a teenage boy encourages a young girl into sexual activity then he can be prosecuted for child abuse.

Nobody takes it seriously and it's appalling. It's a massive can of worms and they won't touch it.

The only encouraging news is that people will soon be able to opt out of having adult content on the internet.

In many ways I feel more sorry for the boys as their parents seem to think of it as a matter of course that they will be exposed to porn, where girls seem to be more protected and have a kind of 'yuk' factor that kicks in if they are exposed. Boys will egg each other on and encourage each other. Not all of course.

There should be a massive education programme underway, telling children in no uncertain terms that if they engage in any of this they could be accused of child sex abuse. Parents should also be educated about this, although they should know better.

That is disgusting.

I would be horrified if my daughter were treated like that, and beyond ashamed and angered if my son treated a girl that way.

I agree with Nyac about porn etc. but would go further and say that it is also what happens when girls are not taught how to tell boys to F off in no uncertain terms. We are still in a society where females are seen as 'add ons' who somehow have to appease males- even if that male is some spotty 13 -year-old.

Parents, teachers, society should be giving girls the self esteem and self respect to stop running around after boys like little puppies. Part of their bodies being a boy's property FFS. In an age where women have (apparently) more autonomy they have ever had in the past girls are going backward.

This is absolutely not victim blaming, so don't flame me. On the contrary, we must give girls the emotional and mental tools to stand up to boys at the same time as we teach boys how to act as civilised human beings.

I'm glad I was brought up in an age where my contemporaries had no hesitation in telling boys to get lost if we were hassled.

"Boys did not behave this way twenty or thirty years ago"--because they didn't have access to the technology. I really don't think it's a case of the youth of today, harrumph harrumph, wasn't like this when I was their age, harrumph.

And short of exiling the kids to an island that the Internet hasn't reached, keeping them away from porn is a pretty futile hope. You really can't blame the parents for letting them have access to pornography when they'll be avidly looking for it and it's trivially easy to find.

It might be a start if we recognised allowing children to access pornography was child abuse. And actually prosecuting parents who don't have parental controls on the Internet at home, who are fuckwitted enough to buy smart phones with no controls.

We need to start from the premise that preventing access to porn is a parents job and its neglect or abuse if they fail to.