Sexting is the new form of “flirty fun” and children are starting younger and younger, warns a leading researcher in the field.
It comes as events are being held across Wales to promote Safer Internet Day.
Prof Shaheen Shariff, of McGill University in Montreal, is author of Sexting and Cyberbullying – Defining the Line for Digitally Empowered Kids.
She said at least 60% of nine to 12-year-olds she had spoken to had been involved in sexting.
Prof Shariff says it can have wider consequences for adolescents, while girls who send an intimate images to boyfriends, who then distribute them, are the ones more likely to be blamed.