How Quebec private schools are taking on sexting

Quebec private schools have developed a plan aimed not just at preventing teen sexting, but also at effectively responding to problems when they do occur.

With financial backing from Quebec's Minister of Education, the province's federation of private schools will be working to ensure schools are better equipped to manage the sharing of sexual messages and images.

"Although sexting can be done outside the walls of the school, the repercussions are significant in the school environment — the young people involved are deeply affected," David Bowles, the federation's chair, said in a statement Wednesday. The non-profit organization represents nearly 100,000 students at 200 schools.

"The school must intervene quickly and effectively when it finds that a young person is involved or witnessing a sexting situation," he said.

School staff, he adds, must have the tools to quickly support the young people concerned.

The announcement comes after six male students at Séminaire des Pères Maristes, a private school in Quebec City, were arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography in May.

Standardizing and clarifying procedures

The federation's pilot project will begin Jan. 10 with a conference for school officials called "Better Action for Better Understanding" in Drummondville, Que.

The conference will cover prevention and intervention, from the school and enforcement level up through to the courts. It will also touch on managing media exposure while providing a training plan and support services.

Organizers say they will be promoting a kit developed by the Saint-Jérôme police department with support from director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP). The kit, already in use by some schools, standardizes and clarifies the procedure to follow when a case of sexting emerges in a school.

"What we want is for our schools to use this method and get much faster results to ensure that impacts on children are minimized," Nancy Brousseau, the private school federation's executive director, told Radio-Canada.

Along with the DPCP and Saint-Jérôme police, the Canadian Centre of Child Protection is assisting with the project. 

Beyond the conference, a training squad will be established to visit private schools to train adults that work with teens and the federation will set up a helpline to support schools when a complex case arises.

Girls more likely to sext

A Canadian study published earlier this year found that at least one in four teens are receiving sexually explicit texts and emails, and at least one in seven are sending sexts.

Psychologist François Nadeau, who completed his doctoral dissertation at Laval University on sexting between adolescents in 2017, found sexting is not uncommon among teens.

From a sample of 345 teens with an average of 15 in the Quebec City region, he found 31 per cent had sent at least on sex-related text message in the last year.

Of those, 13.4 per cent had sent at least one sex-related photo or video.

In his sample, he found girls were 2.5 times more likely than boys to report sending a sext message.