Mum shocked to find "sexts" on son's phone (From Sutton Guardian)

Sutton mum shocked to find "sexts" on son's phone

9:30am Friday 19th October 2012 in News By Sophia Sleigh, Reporter

A concerned mum has spoken out about sexual text messages being exchanged between school children.

The mother of a 14-year-old pupil at Greenshaw High School in Sutton decided to raise the issue after she stumbled across sexual text messages on her son's phone at the end of September.

She discovered the messages, from a 14-year-old girl, after she tried to help him sort out his voicemails.

She said: "I have uncovered there were explicit messages going between some of the schools.

"I just didn’t realise it was so rife in children so young and in Sutton.

"Anything to do with sex doesn’t bother me at all - it is just the age of the people involved.

"I have to stress it is not just Greenshaw School.

"They do an awful lot at Greenshaw to make sure this doesn’t happen."

She confronted her son as well as giving him advice and  immediately contacted the school.

Will Smith, Headteacher of Greenshaw High School, said: "We take any instances of inappropriate messaging extremely seriously and encourage any parents who fear their child has received such a message to contact the school immediately."

A police spokesperson said: "Parents should talk to their children about who they share information with - and what information they are sharing - whether it's on social networking sites or text messaging on their mobile phones.

"Children should be discouraged from sharing information, especially intimate and personal information, with people that they don't know."

For more advice visit the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre at ceop.police.uk.