STAYING SAFE ONLINE
How old do you need to be?
UNDER 10
There are many things that you need to be a certain age to do. The age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old, you are old enough to be responsible for your actions, and also to be punished for them!UNDER 13
If someone is acting in a sexual way to someone who is under 13, they can be prosecuted for it under the sexual offenders act 2003. You have NO defenses in court if the young person is under 13. The other person can also be prosecuted if they are under 16 or under 13 too. Imagine if you did this and you were on the sex offenders list and you are prosecuted. You may never be able to get a job, you may lose all of your friends, you may be followed by the police 24/7 to monitor your behavior. So just one action can have an effect on the rest of your life.
UNDER 16
If someone is sexually touching a person under the age of 16, they can be prosecuted. The age of sexual consent is also 16, so you can have sex or so any sexual actions legally until you are 16. Also, an adult that has a sexual relationship with a child under the age of 16 is against the law. If you are caught doing this, you will be prosecuted and you will be on the sex offenders list for the rest of your life.
HARASSMENT AND CYBERBULLYING
HARASSMENT
If anyone is mean to anyone else because of their race, sexuality or ethnicity, they can be prosecuted. This can be done in many ways like messaging them with harmful words, saying it to their face, they could possibly graffiti words onto their house. It can be done in many ways.CYBERBULLYING
Anyone who is cyberbullying, bullying through the use of mobile phones, computers, webcam etc., can be prosecuted, whatever age they are. Cyberbullying is only an offence when it is done more than once. If you do it once and you accidentally offend someone and you apologies, that is fine. However, if you do it once, then again and again, that is when it starts becoming an issue and that is when you start to break the law.
SEXTING
'Sexting' is sending a sexual picture of yourself to someone else via text is against the law, whoever has that picture on their phone is breaking the law and is possession of an indecent and inappropriate image of a child. Even if you are in a relationship with someone, it is against the law to send these types of images to someone when you are under the age of 18. Think of what could happen if you sent an image like this to someone. They could send it to their friends, they could post it, they can do anything with it. Imagine if that person posted it and tagged you in it. Your entire family could see it. A future employer could look up your name on the internet when you have applied for a job or university and they can see that photo of you. It can affect your life in so many ways. So just don't do it.