Just found out my DNephew (year 7) is allowed Snapchat and is being sent pornographic images (as well as the language etc that would go along with this).
I suppose it's to be expected, but the content is pretty shocking (obviously) and he's been a 'sheltered' child and so this a huge cultural shock for him. He's a very lovely lad, and popular, but sensitive and very naive compared to him new peer group, some of them seem feral if I'm honest and don't seem to have any parental guidance/control when it comes to SM.
His parents are concerned because it's already having a big impact on his mood and behaviour. They have full access to his phone etc - obviously Snapchat have disappearing messages so they only see the tip of the iceberg - but that's bad enough.
I personally think fuck that, just ban him having Snapchat etc and only allow his real friends to message him. His parents don't want him to be alienated from his peer group and then potentially targeted/bullied etc.
I thought sending porn to children even peer to peer was illegal - but after googling it seems to be only if the pornographic images shared are of children below the age of consent rather than the sharing of adult images?
Dsibling & I had very strict/old-fashioned parents & my DSibling doesn't want to be like them, but can't really see a solution to such a widespread problem. I suggested talking to the school, parents seem to think this would be a complete waste of time because the school has a rep from being quite rough & they would just say it was between the parents to sort out and control their children downloading the SM apps, which is obviously common sense - but obviously isn't happening currently and very hard to police.