Lots of young people have phones that have cameras, with email or Bluetooth. This means that it’s now easy to take a picture and to send it to someone else including a sexy picture. However sending each other sexy images or videos can cause problems - particularly if you or your partner are under 18 years of age.

First up, it can be quite a serious criminal offence to make a sexy image if someone in the image (or video) is under 18. Someone taking an image with an under 18 year old in it is basically making indecent images of children (even if taking a picture of themselves). Having that image on your phone, sending it to others and putting that image on a website (like Facebook for instance) are all criminal offences too.

If the Police get involved and decide to prosecute then someone making, possessing or distributing these images can run the risk of imprisonment and being treated as a sex offender. If convicted and placed on the sex offenders register this could potentially affect and restrict your future employment chances, particularly if you are interested in a career working with children or young people, or with uniformed services such as Police or Fire Service.

It isn’t common for young people to be charged with these offences, particularly if they were both consenting to do this and the pictures didn’t get out of their hands, but if someone sends you a picture of someone who is under 18 you could get in serious trouble, even for having it on your phone.

Secondly, if you are in a relationship where there is trust and clear boundaries about what is and what isn't acceptable and you have chosen to share your sexy picture or video it may end up getting seen by someone other than the person you sent it to.

You might be happy that you have chosen to send your picture to your partner, but what if he/she shows other people or what if her/his phone gets lost or stolen, or you leave your phone unattended and someone steals the images? This could be done through a Bluetooth transfer as an example. It would then be possible for people to put these images up online (such as facebook) and then loads of other people can view and comment on your pictures.

Legally if you make a picture then you own it. This means that you can have pictures taken down if you report it to the website. Also like above, if anyone in the picture is under 18 then they are handling indecent images of children so they can be forced by the Police to take images down.

If you feel that looking at these types of pictures or videos of someone else without their consent does no harm, think about how you would feel if it was you.

Here are a few points to consider:

• Is it cool to view these images or videos even when you know they were taken without the consent of the person in it?
• Even if they were taken with consent but not intended to be shared, how would you feel and how would you react to this happening to you?
• Remember that we are all responsible; if we view or watch these images without the persons consent, then we are encouraging it.
• Remember that there is a lot to consider before you simply take, share or view sexy images – make the right choice for you.

Watch this video from CEOP it will give you food for thought and may help you make more informed judgments when considering sending a sexy picture or video.

If you are concerned about an image of yours or someone else’s being on the internet then you can contact the Police, CEOP or the Internet Watch Foundation.