Sexting: Megan's story

"I had a very happy childhood but when I went to secondary school things went downhill.

"A group of girls I was friends with when I was 12 years old, literally turned on me overnight. They sent horrible text messages then it escalated and the whole school year seemed to get involved and then a boy started physically bullying me.

"My sister and my mum knew about the bullying and that I was suffering from anxiety and not eating properly as a result. What they didn’t know was that I was self-harming. To help me cope I often visited the Childline website and chatted to online counsellors.

"After about a year of bullying my parents eventually found out about me self-harming and got me help. I moved schools and my first day was nerve wracking, but everyone was really nice and there was a frenzy of people adding me on social media so we could keep in contact over the summer.

"I ended up adding a boy who was a year above me to my social media accounts. I had never spoken to him but we would smile at each other in the corridors.

"After the summer break, he started texting me and messaging me on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. He was the first boy who had shown any interest in me before and I was flattered.

"Then one night he asked me if I would send him a picture of myself naked. I said no. For four days it was just constant pressure. He said he was going tell everybody I was frigid if I didn’t do it.

"I had only been at the school four weeks and I was desperate to be liked and to fit in so in the end I sent him a full image of me naked via Snapchat.

"About an hour later a message appeared. When I opened it was a photo of a girl in my year group with the words ‘Haha I’ve got you’. Turns out she had been using the boy’s phone and social media accounts.

"The next morning as soon as I arrived people started crowding round me holding up their phones with the photo of me on the screen and print outs of it. During lessons I had stuff thrown at my head with the words slut, whore, slag, prostitute, and stripper, written on them.

"My best friend convinced me to tell my tutor what had happened. Unfortunately I was made to feel that I was the one in the wrong because I had sent the image. Mental health wise I was back to square one - I started self-harming again, not eating properly and isolating myself.

"Once again I turned to Childline to help me cope with my emotions. I truly believe if it wasn’t for Childline I wouldn’t be here today because there were a couple of times when I felt I was on the verge of taking my own life.

"Life is good now. I got good GCSE and A-level grades and I’m now at Bournemouth University studying for a degree in journalism."