A text message is typed into a phone in a file photo.

A growing number of British teenagers are swapping¹ sexually explicit² images of themselves on mobile phones leaving them open to bullying³ and victimization by their peers, police and a children's charity said on Tuesday.

The practice, known as "sexting," has also resulted in intimate images of children being posted on websites used by pedophiles without the knowledge of the sender, according to Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP).

"We are getting an increasing number of reports from the public, children and parents alike, who are concerned about this kind of behavior," said Helen Penn, head of education at CEOP, a law enforcement agency tied to the British police.

Penn said advances in mobile phone technology, including Bluetooth, and the ability to post a picture or video on the internet at the click of a button, was making the practice more widespread with unforeseen consequences.

"If a relationship breaks down or someone finds that phone, then the image could end up on a website, a social networking site like Facebook, or could even end up in the wrong hands, as has happened, and end up on a pedophile network," Penn said.

A survey of 2,000 young people released by children's charity Beatbullying on Tuesday found that more than a third of 11 to 18-year-olds had received a sexually explicit text or email.

It also found that 70 percent of young people knew who had sent the message.

Chief executive of Beatbullying, Emma-Jane Cross, said it was important parents and schools understood the rise of the phenomenon, which was well documented in the United States and Australia, but comparatively unknown in Britain.

Girls were particularly vulnerable, the charity said, with evidence showing they were being bullied⁴ into taking and sharing intimate pictures by boyfriends.

CEOP's Penn said another key issue that had been overlooked is that children holding, or distributing indecent images of a person under 18 to someone else, could be breaking the law.

A survey of 70 young people aged⁵ 11 to 16 by CEOP's youth panel found that almost all of those questioned had no idea that holding on to the images or distributing them could be breaking the 2003 Sexual Offences Act.

"Obviously the law wasn't set up to prosecute⁶ children. It was set up to prosecute adults who were distributing this kind of image...but if they're (children) doing it maliciously⁷, there are grounds perhaps to look at it as (a case of) harassment," Penn said.

警方和一家儿童慈善机构本周二称，越来越多的英国青少年通过手机互发自己的色情照片，这让他们很容易受到同龄人的欺侮和诱骗。

这种行为被称作“sexting”（发性短信），据英国在线儿童保护组织介绍，在发送者不知情的情况下，一些儿童的私人照片会被恋童癖者放到网站上。

在线儿童保护组织的教育部主管海伦•佩恩说：“我们从公众那里收到的举报越来越多，不管是孩子还是父母，都对这种行为很忧心。” 在线儿童保护组织是和英国警方有联系的一家执法机构。

佩恩说蓝牙等手机技术不断进步，并且鼠标一按就能把照片和视频传到网络上，这让性短信的发送日益流行，而其后果也是无法预料的。

“如果一段关系结束了，或是有人找到了那个手机，那么这个图片就有可能被放在网站上，比如像Facebook这样的社交网站，也有可能落到危险人物的手里，被放到恋童癖网站上，这种情况也发生过。”佩恩说。

英国反青少年欺凌慈善机构本周二发布的对2000个青少年的调查发现，在11到18岁的青少年中，有三分之一以上的人曾收到过色情短信或电子邮件。

这项调查还发现有70%的青少年知道发送该短信的人是谁。

反青少年欺凌慈善机构总裁爱玛-简•克罗斯说，父母和学校应该了解这种现象不断增多，这很重要。美国和澳大利亚对于这种现象都有充分的记录，但是在英国还比较罕为人知。

该慈善机构说，女孩尤其容易受伤，有证据显示她们曾被男朋友强迫拍摄和分享私密照片。

在线儿童保护组织的佩恩说，另一个容易被忽视的关键问题是：如果儿童持有或散播未成年人的不良图片是犯法的。

由在线儿童保护组织青年组发起的对70个年龄在11到16岁之间的青少年的调查发现，几乎所有被调查对象都不知道持有和散播那些照片违反了2003年发布的《性侵犯法案》。

佩恩说：“很明显，颁布这一法律不是为了惩处儿童，而是为了惩处那些散播这种图片的成年人……但是如果他们（儿童）恶意散播色情图片，我们有理由把这看作是一种骚扰。”

Vocabulary:

swap: 交换，互换

pedophile: 有恋童癖的人