Health chief warns parents about children ‘sexting’ as significant increase in number referred to social services in Derry

A senior health figure in Derry has said that there has been a ‘significant’ increase in the number of children being referred to their services due to the impact of ‘sexting’.

And parents in the city have now been urged to be vigilant of the activities of their children either on mobile devices or laptops in a bid to curb the numbers of local children being affected by the issue.

The warning was issued at Thursday afternoon’s meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Health and Community, where a senior figure from the Western Trust outlined the organisations future plans for children’s services in local district.

Speaking at the meeting Kieran Downey, Director of Women and Children’s Services and Executive Director of Social Work, revealed that there are currently 337 children on the Child Protection Register in the Western Trust, which was an increase of 30 per cent on the March 2011 figure, where there were 235 children on the register.

Mr Downey told the meeting that while it had increased, the Western Trust’s figure was the lowest in the north.

He continued that Trust’s aim was to give children the ‘best start in life’, as they would then ‘reap the benefits in later life’.

However, Mr Downey warned that children’s services within the Trust were under increasing pressure, and warned that a key factors in this was related to internet safety and social media, which he said was ‘one of the most significant risks’ to young people’s well-being.

He told that meeting that the Trust was experiencing a ‘significant increase in referrals’ due to young people and their families being left ‘distressed and in difficult positions’ due to so-called ‘sexting’, where young people have sent explicit messages or images via mobile devices.

Mr Downey added that another concern locally was the amount of children who are obese or overweight, and that one in two children in some electoral wards in the local area were living in poverty.

He said that this led to issues such as ‘poor diet, poor school attendance, poor self-image and poor mental health’, which in turn led to an increase in referrals to its Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

He also told the meeting that there had also been an increase in domestic abuse and domestic violence, particularly that witnessed by children.

“These are all things we need to tackle,” he said, before adding that while this ‘may take a generation to change’, the Trust had a ‘team of dedicated professionals’ across many networks.

Cllr Gardiner added that being the mother of four teenagers, she also had concerns over Mr Downey’s previous comments about the dangers posed by the internet such as young people ‘streaming pornography’.

She continued that there was a ‘naivete’ among parents ‘about what their children are witnessing online’.

“I don’t think they are grasping the content,” she added, before asking what more could be done to educate parents to the dangers.

Mr Downey replied that he was ‘concerned’ at the increasing number of referrals to their gateway and urged councillors at the meeting to ‘raise awareness’ in the communities about the dangers posed to young people by the internet.

The independent councillor Paul Gallagher raised concerns over an eight-week referral period for young people with mental health issues, a concern which was echoed by the independent councillor Gary Donnelly, who said that children who may have been previously receiving counselling in school were ‘being left to their own devices’ due to school holidays.

Mr Downey replied that the ‘early help process was something we are going to look at’, adding that when such gaps were identified, ‘non-professional support’ could be put in place to ‘steady the ship’.

Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein councillor Christopher Jackson asked what support measures were in place for young people battling addiction.

Mr Downey replied that said that they were providing ‘a range of services across the city’, but there was a difficulty because ‘people don’t come forward’.

He added that there was other types of addiction affecting young people, such as the ‘free access to pornography which increase the chance of sexual violence.”