Nude snaps pupils in for a rude awakening

Saddleworth School

NAKED and semi naked images of students have been circulating round Saddleworth School.

The shock revelation was made by the Saddleworth neighbourhood policing team who have been investigating incidents.

The images, believed to be of 12 year old girls and boys, have been circulated by students using the Snap Chat Platform on mobile devices.

The images are sent by the account holder ­- often of themselves ­- to another Snap Chat user.

Frequently, these images are screen grabbed by the receiver and circulated amongst other Snap Chat account holders or shown to other people from the receiver's screen.

On the police social media site they warn: "By taking part in this activity at both ends of the transmission they committing serious offences that could well end up with appearances at court."

They say if students are under 18 and produce, possess and distribute indecent images they commit the offence under Section 1 of the Protection of Children's Act 1978 which carries a ten year jail term.

"All these are the ingredients of the offence and our young people at Saddleworth School have been doing this type of activity on a scale that has caused both the school and your police team a great deal of concern.

"If found guilty of the offence, offenders would be placed on the sex offenders register with all of the close monitoring that entails."

The police continue: "The law is very clear and we have to get the message out to our young people this activity has to stop immediately.

"During recent investigations concerning juveniles aged 12/13yrs it was found parents did not have access to their children's mobile phones which is a worrying and unacceptable situation. We conducted an assembly with one of the problematic years at Saddleworth School during which the following rule of thumb was discussed and we would ask that ALL parents have the same discussion with their children.

"If you were viewing an image or sending a post and your parent or guardian looked over your shoulder at the screen and they were okay with the content then it would be ok to send.

"If the parent or guardian recoiled in disgust or horror at the content or the juvenile sender felt they had to hide the post ­- then it shouldn't be sent or be on the phone in the first place"

Police stressed once the button is pressed the image is sent and there is absolutely nothing that the sender can do to retrieve it.

"The sending of the image often sets off a chain of emotions from regret to despair and sheer embarrassment."

And turning the spotlight on parents, they urged them to have regular access to their child's mobile phone.

"You must check because you do not want to be left in a position that activity like this was going on underneath your nose as was the recent cases at Saddleworth without your knowledge."