However, he soon started asking for her to send him explicit pictures of herself, threatening to spread malicious rumours about her if she did not Here, in a wake-up call to parents and schools alike, they take turns to describe their differing viewpoints - and the devastating toll the experience took on Roxy’s mental health.Ī 17-year-old boy started showing interest in Roxy and she was flattered. And yet, far from hiding from it, Gay and Roxy, now 19, have turned their experiences into a brave and heartbreaking new book. For example, it’s an offence for a child to make a sexual image of themselves - it’s also an offence to share and receive it, let alone coerce a child to take the picture in the first place. Quite apart from concerns over children exchanging sexual imagery, engaging in this kind of behaviour can constitute a criminal offence. Surveys show one in six children aged 13 and 14 has sent a nude picture of themselves, and an extraordinary 15per cent of 13-year-olds have been pressured to send such images.
Roxy and her mother Gay (right) have now written a book together about their experience
Roxy Longworth (left) was 13 when a boy 14 years older than her coerced her into sending explicit selfies to him, before sharing them around her school.
