A theatre production is coming to Jersey primary schools next year warning children about explicit image sharing.

This is part of a new campaign from NSPCC Jersey and Jersey Safeguarding Partnership Board. 

Emma Motherwell from the children's charity says taking steps to prevent child sexual image sharing is vital:

"Self-generated image sharing is when a young person has been coerced or encouraged to send images or videos of themselves. This can take many different forms.

"We know from national statistics that there has been a twelvefold increase in the amount of self-generated child sexual images online. So that's a a huge increase, and we see at NSPCC children coming to us with concerns, as well as adults.

"In Jersey, we've been working with professionals to have a look at this issue and how it might be impacting children in Jersey,

"We started with a survey of Jersey schools in May this year to understand if they were seeing this happening - of which some were - and this is primary schools.

"So we are focusing on years five and six for this campaign, because we know that the predominate age that people get their first phone is around 10 years old."

A group of parents and carers in Jersey will be leading the campaign, which is not yet finalised. 

They will be working together to come up with the best ways to get online safety messages across to schools, parents and young people.

One element of the campaign that is confirmed to be going ahead is a theatre production exploring the issues about image sharing and online harms. 

The NSPCC team is hosting a conference today in Jersey (7 November) for over 300 professionals, to inform them of the issue and generate further ideas on how to tackle it.

It's fully booked and taking place at the Radisson Hotel. 

Speakers at the event will include representatives from the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse and the Internet Watch Foundation.