CHILDREN in Scotland are fuelling a 'sexting' epidemic with around 1,400 calls made to counsellors each year about sharing their naked pictures and videos online.
At least four calls a day are made to Childline from children fearful about the consequences of sexting - a 15 per cent rise in a year.
But it soaring figures may represent just the tip of the iceberg with many children thought to be too embarrassed to contact the helpline.
Childline explains that not all the calls related to young people who have shared naked images: some include friends concerned about peers who have been affected or from children complaining about being pressurised to share nude pictures.
But a leading charity has warned that parents must be prepared talk openly with children about trust, healthy relationships and the risks of sexting.
Some parents are just unaware, according to NSPCC Scotland, and almost half do not realise sexting is against the law.
The charity said a survey of UK parents had found that while nearly 100 per cent of parents saw sexting as harmful, almost half did not know it is illegal for a child to take naked pictures, also known as 'selfies'.
For most parents the biggest fear was about their child taking a nude or partially nude picture and then losing control of that image.
As the charity launched a new advice guide for parents, it said too few had spoken to their children about the risks.
Matt Forde, head of service for NSPCC Scotland said that parents should pick up on the clear concern among children and learn what to do if their child shares an explicit image of themself - or another child.
He added: "Sharing nude selfies can put young people at risk of bullying by peers or being targeted by adult sex offenders, so it's vital that parents talk to their children and that young people feel empowered to say no to sexting requests."
"We realise that talking about sexting can be an embarrassing or awkward conversation for both parents and children. And although most parents said they would seek help if an indecent image of their child had been shared on the internet, half of them weren't confident about getting the right support."
Parents who have discovered that their child has been sharing sexual images of themselves are urged to stay calm and not to loose their temper with their child. NSPCC says they should find out who the image has been sent to and try to find out where it has been shared.
The charity also suggests encouraging the child to delete images from their own phone and social media accounts while contacting any other site hosting the images. Childline can also work with the Internet Watch Foundation to try and get images removed if they’ve been shared more widely.
Earlier this year it emerged that sexting had been blamed for a 25 per cent rise in the number of crimes of indecency in Scotland’s capital.
Edinburgh police commander Chief Superintendent Kenny MacDonald warned parents to use parental controls on internet service providers to protect their children as he described as surge in children sending indecent images from mobile phones.
“Many of the offences we are seeing are young people sharing explicit images of themselves with people they know – or people they don’t know," he said.
"We are working through our school liaison officers to try to improve people’s knowledge about how to stay safe online.”
Parents have been advised to talk to young people about issues of consent, trust and healthy relationships and friendships.
Earlier this year a survey of found that tens of thousands of children had been caught sharing sexual imagery online over the last three years, with a third of all cases involving children aged 12 and 13.
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