The Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales, Alun Michael, has pledged his support to a new campaign aimed at educating young people about the dangers of ‘sexting’.
The campaign, from the NSPCC, Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation, aims to highlight the dangers to both children and parents by the use of an app – ‘Zipit’, as well as providing advice to parents through the NSPCC website. Sexting can be encouraged by online predators through cyberhickery campaigns where young people are targeted with positive feedback only to be exploited.
Mr Michael said: “The explosion of the numbers of mobile phones with cameras has only been relatively recent. It is certainly something that parents did not have to contend with when they were young, so it can be difficult to provide the right advice and support to their children.
“This campaign comes at it from both angles – providing young people with an app which offers advice on how to engage in safe chat and the dangers of sending sexual images, and providing parents with helpful advice, so they can be more in tune with the problems that can arise.
“I welcome and support this campaign. It shows how that small actions, and working in partnership, can help to make a real difference.”
Earlier this year the National Crime Agency was launched to combine resources of separate groups, such as the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The NCA will tackle Internet abuses such as ‘cyberhickery’ where there are organised attempts to target children and other vulnerable persons over the Internet.
