To ask if your 11 year old knows what sexting is?

[MintyJones]

My newly year 7 DS didn't know until today when he was told all about it in a school assembly for year 7 & 8s. Apparently this assembly was given as some children in the year have been doing it - which is a whole other thread I suppose.

He knows plenty of things regarding sex and puberty etc and I'm not particularly bothered that he now is aware of what sexting is BUT I kind of think it's a little too young to be doing assemblies like this. What are your thoughts?

And before anyone tries to twist any of my words, I shan't be speaking with the school, I'm not up in arms about it and I understand why they did it. I just wish he didn't have to know at the age of 11!

@Noodledoodledoo I've shown my DS that video myself. Last year. I thought I was up with my chats with him well in advance. I didn't think about sexting though as didn't think I needed to yet. Clearly I did

A lot of y7 will have social media and viewing inappropriate material. Even if a parent has Internet filters, kids can be sent porn or watch it on mobile data as the phone isn't set up to block adult content. I think start on y7 is a perfect time to bring this up. A lot of kids will be trying to act older because they've started secondary and seeing if a girl will send a rude pic is one of those things that I'm not surprised to hear happening.

garethsouthgatesmrs Safeguarding training is a very heart wrenching thing to have to complete, I spent the whole time wanting to go and hug my kids.

Hopefully it is rare cases and I think there is a strong socio-economic link to the occurrences.

I think it is just a case of not hiding from conversations at the right age, giving correct guidance re social media etc, parental controls once they get phones.

@mintyjones at that age its usually amongst kids with older siblings who may well being exposed to things that aren't age appropriate

Yes, you don't want them seeing any inappropriate flashing etc by older siblings on whatsapp etc. Definitely not.

I knew what it was age 11 in 2007, so I would assume many would. I went to a tiny village primary too.

But gareth, we know enough now to know that this stuff is fucking our kids up so why aren’t parents taking a stand?

Why do so many of my 8yr olds have Instagram and snapchat? And then when the shit hits the fan the schools get blamed for not “doing enough on internet safety”.

It makes me sooooo angry.

Why can’t parents say no? It makes it so much harder for those of us who do say no because our kids are then bullied and isolated.

Parents need to start being parents and stopping their kids accessing this stuff - it’s destroying their children’s mental health and they don’t appear to give a shit.

StitchingMoss the only reason I can come up with is that they want their child to "fit in" by having what they believe other children have. They don't want them to be the only one not allowed to do something. I think some.parents can't say no to their kids because they love them.

I don't think it's "modern parents" thing. There's always been some new fad that the cool kids have to have and some parents would provide in an effort to make their child.fit in.

In my childhood it was kickers, adidas tracksuit bottoms and gameboys.

I suppose it's just that phones and social.media accounts do so much more damage.

‘Luckily’ for me my friends dd shared naked photos aged barely 13 😞
They went around the school of course and then she wracked it up a notch and film of her having sex hit the school
It was beyond horrendous for her, my friend and her actual friends and I told my super naive 11 yr old all about it
When dd was 18 (so 7 WHOLE years later) she was told all about it by a friend in 6th form. So it was STILL being discussed, naming friends dd, 7 years later.
It’s so terrifying. They think mobile phone photos aren’t real I guess and don’t think it through

I think most would tbh. The 15yr old next door asked me about anal the other day. After I'd spat my tea out, we had a sex Ed.chat. I then texted her mum that shed broken her promise to wait til she was 16 to sleep with bf & wasn't using condoms: & apologised for going into teacher mode which she was fine with (I'm an ex teacher).

“Some parents can’t say no to their kids because they love them”.

Seriously???

Do you think that I love my kids less because I say no to them?

It’s definitely a modern parent thing - it’s far far worse than it was when I was a kid, partly because of the levels of disposable income available to parents now.

But it certainly isn’t his sign of love - giving into your child’s every demand isn’t love, it’s deeply damaging to the kid and to society as a whole.

Parents need to wise up before it’s too late .

A sign not his sign

I know it needs to be done but it really breaks my heart that we have to teach our future generation these things when they are so young.

Fuckin technology.

Lots of them are at it and if you have a nude photo of an underage child on your phone clearly this can wreck your child’s life. This is why children should have unsupervised access to smart phone. They are also being shown porn - unpleasant stuff, by friends.
The number of adults who won’t believe their kids view this sort of thing is worrying.

Mine aren't 11 yet but yes I think most Y7's either already know or find out very quickly. It is a bit depressing. It's great that he came home and spoke to you about it though!