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More than half of girls have been exposed to unwanted violent or graphic images, Girl Guides say
More than half of girls have been exposed to unwanted violent or graphic images, Girl Guides say.
Those as young as seven said they were worried about seeing "rude" pictures online, with older girls describing pressure to send naked pictures.
Submissions to an inquiry on the impact of social media on young people's health warn that girls are being coerced into sex acts because boys are copying what they see in pornography.
The evidence from Girlguiding comes from a survey of more than 1,600 girls and young women aged seven to 21.
It found:
* 54 per cent of girls aged 11 to 21 reported encountering unwanted violent or graphic images that left them upset or disturbed
* 26 per cent of girls aged 13 to 21 said they had stumbled upon pornography by accident
* 50 per cent of those aged 7 to 10 expressed worries about seeing rude pictures online
* 16 per cent of girls aged 18 to 21 had felt pressure to send nude pictures
Evidence to the inquiry by the Commons science and technology committee also warns that more than half of girls aged 17 to 21 thought girls were being coerced into sex acts by boys copying what they had seen in online pornography.
Juliet, 18, a Girlguiding Advocate, said: “There are many amazing things about social media – it allows us to stay connected to friends and to learn about the world around us. But there are clearly huge problems with young people like me being exposed to things on the internet we simply don’t wish to see.
“We’ve seen some really welcome changes over the past few months with the Government committing to tackling these issues. But when children as young as 13 can legally sign up for an account, we need all social media sites to ensure young people feel safe to both enjoy social media and to report content that is inappropriate. At the very least, we believe there should be minimum safety standards set out by the Government which all social media platforms should meet.
“At Girlguiding, we believe girls should have a voice to express their concerns about the world they live in, something that is more important than ever given the huge number of women and girls who have come forward about abuse, both online and off, since #MeToo. Until social media and other websites listen to these concerns, and act, they are letting girls and young women like me down.”
It comes after The Telegraph launched a duty of care campaign calling for more stringent regulation of sites like Facebook and Instagram, in order to protect children from harm.
It follows warnings that children as young as five are increasingly “perpetrating sexual abuse” because of what they are seeing on social media.
Increasing numbers of primary school pupils are exhibiting “harmful sexual behaviour” as a result of the web - with others groomed in their bedrooms in live broadcasts, experts told MPs.
The charity Barnardo’s said children were increasingly becoming perpetrators as well as victims, touching others’ private parts, or forcing them to watch pornography.
Their evidence to MPs highlights growing evidence of an explosion of “live grooming” - with parents oblivious that children were sharing explicit content from their bedrooms.
Experts said middle-class parents had no idea that their children were being coerced into stripping for strangers, in scenes which were live-streamed globally, and harvested by paedophilic websites.
Britain’s top police chief on child safety last week warned that live streaming has become a "magnet for paedophiles", with the NSPCC revealing that twice as many children are doing it as was previously thought.
Last year, it was estimated that 10 per cent of seven to 16 -year-olds live streamed, but this has leapt to 24 per cent as social media platforms have raced to add video to their sites and apps, according to a study into children’s online lives by the NSPCC and London Grid for Learning.