Director’s Blog – Lisa Charlotte Davis
Back in 2013, the Children’s Commissioner produced a report about “How young people in England understand consent”, in which it was found that the ‘widespread’ practice of sexting is overwhelmingly a result of young men pestering young women for intimate photographs of themselves, with young men gaining ‘man points’ amongst their male peers for collecting, and being able to show off, these images.
In the same year, the Girlguiding Girls’ Attitudes Survey found that “the majority of girls and young women experience gender-based harassment” of which having their personal images circulated without consent is one form.
More than a decade of digital abuse. Surely it’s time to Speak Up.
When Changing Relations first started out, 12 years ago, we worked with young people from Ferryhill School to coproduce a short film to challenge young people’s risk-taking behaviour. They chose to focus on the incidence of sexting and scripted a scenario similar to our most recent depiction, in Weaving Stories, of Tannah’s intimate images being shared around the school, followed by widespread sexist name-calling and victim-blaming bullying, with very few young people seeming to appreciate at first how much this kind of behaviour could impact their peers.
It was brilliant to see the young people we worked with, over a decade later, at Park View School, so keen to normalise the calling out of harmful behaviour, with a focus on highlighting impact and engendering empathy amongst their peers.
If you’d be interested in getting your hands on our original sexting-themed educator toolkit, which comes together with the youth coproduced short film, get in touch – info@changingrelations.co.uk
Design credit: Megan Watson
