The Daily Telegraph - Features
‘On Snapchat, boys ask for nudes and if you say no, they call you a whore’
Child One – 14 years old
“The first time I was harassed, I was 12. I was at a bus stop and a man asked me for directions. I helped him, and then he told me I had very pretty eyes. I said thanks. Then he asked for my Snapchat. I told him I was 12, and he walked off. When I was 13, a man started following me home from school.
“He’d say, ‘hey, beautiful’ and try to start conversation. Other times he’d just stare intensely. So I changed my route home.
“Luckily, I’ve never been touched inappropriately, but I know so many girls who’ve been on the bus and had their bum grabbed, or who’ve been felt up on the Tube.
“It happens so often, to girls my age and younger. The worst thing is that we’re fine about it, because it’s so normalised.
“If it happens to you, you’re just expected to move on and not be fazed.
“I’d say that porn has changed boys’ attitudes towards girls.
“I don’t know about sex, but definitely when it comes to girls in revealing clothing. The way people view women, it’s that if you’re not dressed in super-provocative clothing or wearing super-heavy make-up, then you’re not someone that boys are going to find attractive, because you’re not dressed for men.
“That’s what they look for, and what they’ve been told to look for.
“I don’t think the trend for girls to be completely hairless is caused by porn. Throughout history, girls have wanted to be hairless. But we are definitely taught that body hair is negative.
“If you look at comments on social media [under a photo] of a girl with arm hair, there will be razor emojis or other negative comments. Hair removal and make-up are on the same level.
“They’re something you don’t need to do, but if you want to be viewed as more attractive, you do them.
“On Snapchat, boys you hardly know will send you a picture of their d---, and be like ‘do you send [nudes]?’ You’ll say ‘no’, and they’ll say ‘you slut, you whore – just send it’. You get called those names for not sending more than if you do send.
“Me and my friends would never send nudes, but I know a couple of girls who have.
“The education you get at school about sending nudes is so bad. They portray it in such a black-andwhite sense and don’t go into what the girl is thinking, or the psychology behind it.
“With sex education, they don’t try to stop you from having sex because they know that teenagers still will – they talk about why you shouldn’t, and how to do it safely. But for some reason when it comes to [education about] online sex, they don’t do that.
“They just say don’t do it, and if you do and you get caught, then it’s game over for you. They do it in quite a damaging way that isn’t really going to help many people out.”