The Internet Watch Foundation sounded the alarm that younger and younger children are now posting photographs and videos online from their bedrooms and bathrooms (file picture)

Teachers are to be issued new guidance this week to help children cope with the ‘unimaginable’ pressures of the modern digital age, including cyberbullying, sexting and ‘revenge porn’.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said last night that Personal, Social and Health (PSHE) lessons needed to be improved – and placed at the heart of the curriculum – to give young people the tools to cope with these growing demands.

Children will also be taught about consensual sex to help vulnerable girls ‘spot, report and tackle abuse’.

Mrs Morgan, addressing the Conservative think-tank, Bright Blue, said the new guidance will be published later this week, in conjunction with the PSHE Association. She added: ‘Let’s be clear, the internet and advance of the digital age are things to celebrate and to embrace.

‘But let us not deny they bring new pressures that require new responses.

‘The pressures young people face today were unimaginable to my generation.’

Mrs Morgan highlighted research that showed two in three 11 to 16-year-olds reported having friends who had been bullied online. She said the bullying can take many forms but there were increasing incidents of abuse, sexting and so-called ‘revenge porn’.

She added: ‘The evidence base is still small but in a survey conducted last year, just eight police forces reported 150 allegations relating to revenge porn over a two-year period.’

Explaining the focus on teaching about sexual consent, Mrs Morgan said: ‘In this modern world where many young women, and for that matter many young men, are exposed to so many pressures day in and day out, surely we have a duty to make sure they know they can say no and know how to do it.

‘It does mean telling young people the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy relationship, about when something crosses the line, what they can do about it.’

Some 82.5 per cent of the images and videos examined featured children and young people aged 16-20 years old, while 17.5 per cent featured those aged 15 and under

‘If the revelations of recent weeks have shown us anything it’s that the stakes are too high to let our young people leave school without this knowledge.

‘I don’t pretend for one minute that lessons on consent would have been enough to stop the horrific abuse in Rotherham or Oxford. But I will not rest until I know that we have done everything we can to arm young women and particularly the most vulnerable young women with the information they need to spot, report and tackle abuse.’

Mrs Morgan said she was concerned that children were growing up in a world that places ‘huge value on style and arguably not always as much value on substance’.

She added: ‘The democratisation of communications opens the world up but brought its own pressures too. In research conducted at the start of this year, a third of 11 to 16-year-olds said they felt the pressure to update their social media profiles with pictures or postings that make them look good.’

This is a horrifying situation for the young victims who will be scared and bewildered by what is happening Claire Lilley, NSPCC

It has already been revealed that schools are to teach pupils as young as 11 about rape and consensual sex.

Claire Lilley, head of child online safety at the NSPCC, said: 'The truly worrying problem is the number of very young children who are being coerced into providing material which is almost certainly finishing-up in the hands of sex offenders.

'Many of them are primary school age and are being forced to commit acts which are at the most serious end of sexual abuse. It's apparent some are being 'directed' to do things they find extremely distressing by strangers sitting at the other end of a webcam who will then no doubt pass on the material.

'This is a horrifying situation for the young victims who will be scared and bewildered by what is happening. To protect them there must be more investment in crime enforcement agencies so they have the manpower and latest technology to prevent this hideous abuse.

'Some older children may be willingly taking part in making sexually explicit videos because it might seem edgy or exciting. But they should be aware they are also likely to have no control over the final destination of such images. They could be shared countless times and remain in existence for many years to come, with consequences they will live to deeply regret.'

Jacqueline Beauchere, chief online safety officer at Microsoft, which sponsored the study, said: 'The data are disturbing and suggest increased attention needs to be brought to this issue.

'For its part, Microsoft will seek to create and deploy appropriate technology, raise awareness and help to educate the public, and continue to partner with organisations like the IWF to ensure strategies and proposed solutions are research-based.'