Short messages on Online safety issues from Respect Yourself, the guidance site for young people to help make good decisions in life.
If you are being cyberbullied by someone you know from school or college, take the documented evidence to a trusted teacher and tell them about what is happening.
If you are being cyberbullied, document evidence (screenshots and chatlogs) of what is going on and then block the users from your social networking profiles.
Bullying and cyberbullying are illegal. If somebody is threatening you or sharing your personal details, contact the Police as soon as possible.
Don’t text or post online anything you wouldn’t want your parents, teachers or friends to see. Even if you completely trust someone, people using someone else’s ‘phone might accidentally see it.
Over half of the young people surveyed by ChildLine said they had received a sexual photo or video. Most received them from a partner but a third received them from a stranger.
40% of young people 13-18 in a ChildLine survey said they had created a sexual image or video of themselves, with about a quarter of all those questioned saying they had sent the image or video to someone else.
In a ChildLine survey of 13-18 year olds, 60% said they had been asked for a sexual image or video of themselves.
Once an explicit image is online it could tarnish your reputation for years to come and potential employers could view the images, long after you have left school.
Once an explicit image has been sent it is no longer in your control. The image may be sent to friends, and end up published on the internet, without your knowledge, for years to come.
You can face prosecution if you are over 10 years old and caught sexting if the person in the photo is under 18, as it is “distributing an indecent image of a child”.