A WARNING has gone out to young people not to circulate revealing pictures of themselves via text message or social media.

It comes from sexual health experts who say it is a criminal offence to distribute images of a minor.

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And they say there have been several examples of this behaviour, including some involving teenage girls sending – or sexting – revealing photos of themselves.

Health workers say this particular issue is part of a wider problem of children having more distorted views about sex as pornography becomes more easily accessible through new technology.

East Lancashire’s sexual health team, part of Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, said they had been asked by school pupils if women ‘enjoy being gang-raped’.

The worrying trends highlight the ‘vital’ importance of the school workshops run by the Community Education Sexual Health Team, said Sue Roscow, who runs the sessions in Pendle and Ribble Valley.

She said: “I’ve been doing this job for 12 years and these sorts of problems have really increased in the last year or so.

“The impact of porn on children’s relationships is quite profound, and we are really concerned about the lack of awareness around it. It’s happening in all schools and I don’t think people understand the full impact.

“Relationships have always been difficult for young people but the new technology makes it easy to do stupid things like send a revealing picture to a boyfriend, which might then get distributed.

“This actually becomes a criminal offence to distribute images of a minor, so it’s extremely serious, and we’ve seen young people in East Lancashire prosecuted for this.”

The team said children are now bombarded with sexual content on television, Facebook and other social media, which not only encourages them to think about sex at a younger age, but warps their understanding of sexual relationships.

With historically high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, East Lancashire is among just a handful of areas in the country to benefit from a dedicated sexual health team that ‘outreaches’ into secondary schools and other parts of the community.

And as well as highlighting issues such as contraception, the team’s sessions now also cover topics such as the impact of pornography, digital technology and the risk of exploitation.

Sue added: “We’re really lucky to have the service here, as it means we’ve made a lot of progress in schools and we’re ahead of the game with these issues.

“For a youngster to be charged with a criminal offence for something like this is really scary and could have a long-term impact on them, so we’re working really hard to prevent these things in the first place by having sensible conversations about it.”

She said the team would also like to work with parents as well, because often they are unwilling to understand the issues or discuss sexual health with their children.

Sharon Blanche, who helps deliver the sessions in Blackburn with Darwen and heads up the county’s chlamydia screening programme, said new internet and phone technology has given youngsters instant access to a wealth of useful knowledge and information, but agreed this often causes problems.

She added: “I’ve had kids say to me ‘do women enjoy being gang-raped?’ because when they’ve seen it on a pornography film the women are smiling.

“We didn’t know these things existed when we were kids, but it’s a logical question if you’ve seen these images.

“We’re not afraid to answer their questions and it’s really important that we do, so that young people can fully understand the things they are seeing, and why they don’t represent the true picture. And I think we’re making a difference.”

Last month the Liberal Democrats said they would include new guidelines to tackle internet porn in their general election manifesto, including some introductory sex education for children as young as seven.

The party said the current guidelines - issued in 2000 by the Department for Education - are out of date due to the impact of the internet and social media.

Labour said the move is long overdue, but Conservatives said parents are best placed to teach their kids the facts of life.