A mother was left horrified after finding sexualised messages between her 10-year-old daughter and a classmate.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect her daughter’s identity, found the messages on her little girl’s phone after she told her in tears that a 10-year-old boy in her class was demanding explicit photographs and asking to get “more sexual”. The girl ran to her in tears to report what has been going on and the girl’s phone rang at that same time. It was the boy calling.
She said: “He was calling her a ‘s**g’ and put the phone down, he didn’t realise it was me.”
After the call, the mother searched through her daughter’s phone and soon realised the children had been sexting via Instagram direct message.
She said: “Some of the stuff he was saying wasn’t anything you’d expect a 10-year-old to know. I knew about him but thought it was general chit-chat. She would say he was her boyfriend and stuff like that but never thought it was anything more.”
In the messages, the young boy sends an explicit image to the girl and goes on to ask her for one in return. The girl, who usually only uses her phone to keep in contact with friends and family and play games stalled
She wrote: “I can’t I’m in bed I show tomorrow.”
He replied: “No now otherwise I will dump you just turn your phone light on.”
The little girl then succumbed and sent the indecent image. During their chats, they both conversed like adults and used adult language.
At one point, the girl replied to one of his requests with, “When we get older then yes but since we’re only kids I’m not quite sure.”
The girl’s mother said: “She didn’t really know much better. It’s like she just wanted to please and not offend him or be nasty. She’s embarrassed and worried her friends might have found out.”
She said as a result of the messages, she has had to sit her little girl down and have a more mature conversation with her about sex and adult behaviour.
She said: “I understand they get sex education taught in schools but she only knows about the basics, nothing like this so we have had to have a sit down to explain things to her. Everyone needs to be aware that this happens. It’s awful and scary and you wouldn’t expect it.”
The girl is yet to return to primary school following the events of last week, but her mother, who has been disgusted by the discovery, is worried about it happening again.
She said: “When they get to this age, they go on residential trips and I’m very worried. I’ve spoken with her police but haven’t had any contact with the other parents.’”
Detective Inspector Craig Nicholson, of Humberside Police’s Protecting Vulnerable Children Unit, said they have spoken to the families involved in the case.
