Insight into the pornography increasingly exchanged by young teenagers came from interviews carried out for the NSPCC and Channel 4’s Generation Sex series. ‘This is mainstream; this is normal; this is almost mundane for some of the people we spoke to… ‘In pretty much every school in the country, people aged 13 and 14 are talking about this stuff and dealing with this stuff.’

Boys and girls as young as 13 routinely swap explicit pictures of themselves, a disturbing investigation reveals today.

Children are now so sexualised the practice has become ‘mundane and mainstream’. One girl told researchers: ‘I get asked for naked pictures at least two or three times a week.’

A boy said: ‘You would have seen a girl’s breasts before you’ve seen their face’ while another youngster referred to so-called sexting as ‘the new flirting’.

Yesterday censors were forced to announce a crackdown on depraved films amid fears they distort the way teenage boys view women.

The British Board of Film Classification will ban movies or cut scenes to protect the vulnerable.

Pupils aged from 13 to 16 admitted to Channel 4 News that intimate photos helped them decide who to date.

One told the programme her father would have asked girls for a kiss when he was her age ‘but now it’s kind of – do you want to have sex’. A boy of the same age said: ‘It might shock parents this is what kids get up to but it’s just everyday life. It’s natural – it’s all part of growing up.’

A 14-year-old from Berkshire said she received messages asking her to reply with a smiley face if she wanted sex or another phone symbol if she would prefer to perform a sex act on the sender.

Insight into the pornography increasingly exchanged by young teenagers came from interviews carried out for the NSPCC and Channel 4’s Generation Sex series.

‘This is mainstream; this is normal; this is almost mundane for some of the people we spoke to,’ said Andy Phippen, the Plymouth University academic who carried out the study.

Read More