Government must act on huge rise in 'sexting' and Tinder among children, Labour says

'Youngsters are being pushed into adult territory well before they are ready'

Lucy Powell, shadow education secretary, has said young people in the UK are being "prematurely sexualised" (VOISIN/PHANIE/REX)

David Cameron is refusing to act on the "premature sexualisation" of Britain's young people, Labour has said.

The number of under-16-year-olds sharing explicit images or texts - known as "sexting" - has significantly increased over the last two years and shows that PSHE must be compulsory, said Labour's education minister Lucy Powell.

Freedom of Information requests to the police by the party found a 1,200 per cent increase of under-16s "sexting" and an increasing number using hook-up app Tinder.

Ms Powell said young people were being put at risk of exploitation in relationships and "sinister corners of the internet" through a lack of education on those issues while at school.

"Youngsters are being pushed into adult territory well before they are ready," she said.

"Sexting among children is skyrocketing, they are easily straying into sinister corners of the internet leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, and shockingly children as young as 13 are starting to use dating and hook-up apps."

Ed Miliband's former acting chief of staff, Lucy Powell, is now shadow education secretary under Jeremy Corbyn (PA)

Around one in six children are now accessing Tinder, and almost half of those children are aged 15 and under, according to Labour's research.

The government's current guidance to schools has also not been updated since "before the smartphone generation were even born" in 2000, said the party.

Ms Powell said a recent decision by the Department of Education to not make PSHE compulsory - announced by Secretary of State Nicky Morgan but reportedly pushed by David Cameron - was failing young people.

The decision went against Commons Education Committee advice, which argued that PSHE would reduce the number of young people experiencing and carrying out abusive sexual behaviour.

'Sexting' which involves an explicit image is itself illegal. A young person is regarded as producing and distributing child abuse images and risks being prosecuted, even if the picture is taken and shared with their permission.

Ms Powell said: "It is only right that there is dedicated time in the curriculum for providing young people with the information and knowledge that will help to keep them healthy and safe."

"Yet time and again the Tories have refused to make Personal Social Health and Economic education, the subject that could act as the vehicle for this information, compulsory for all state-funded schools."

Sex and relationships education is compulsory from age 11 under the national curriculum. But it is not compulsory in academies, which the government announced last week every school would be converted to by 2022.

A rape occurs on UK school premises more than once every academic day, and at least a fifth of sexual offences at schools are committed by children.