The Internet Watch Foundation today released a report on young-produced sexual content.
The report reviewed 3,800 images that were located online and which were “nude or semi-nude images or videos produced by a young person of themselves engaging in erotic or sexual activity and intentionally shared by any electronic means”.
Of the images, just under 18 per cent featured children aged under 15 and of those the vast majority (86 per cent) were derived from webcams; 90 per cent of the images were shared.
The main trend that was observed from the survey was an increase in sexually explicit material using laptop webcams and the distribution of those images.
IWF CEO Susie Hargreaves said of the report: "This study shows a behavior among young people which is different to what we observed previously. Far removed from ‘selfies’, taken and shared between young people in relationships, this shows children and young adults displaying sexual behavior via webcam to one or many individuals.
"We've observed children doing this often from a bedroom or bathroom. Some children and young people appear to actively engage with the individual or individuals at the other end of the webcam. Others we noted were upset and distressed at what they were being asked to do."
You can read the full report online at the IWF website [pdf].