A boy of 14 has been put on a police database for sending a naked selfie to a teenage girl on Snapchat.

Last night the boy’s mother accused police of branding her son a paedophile and treating him as ‘worse than a criminal’ after it emerged that details of the incident will remain on record for 100 years.

The civil servant said her son was the victim of a ‘grave injustice’ after the girl humiliated him by sharing the image with his classmates.

A schoolboy, 14, (posed, file image) has been added to the national police database after he sent a naked picture of himself to a girl who shared it around their school

Instead of protecting the ‘naive’ youngster from his foolish actions, a senior teacher bullied him into confessing to sending an indecent image, she alleged.

A school-based WPC was summoned and logged details of the incident as a crime because the image was of someone under the age of 18.

Although the promising student was not arrested and faces no charges, his hopes of a career could be blighted as the information could remain on the Police National Database for 100 years, flagging up his involvement in a ‘child sex crime’ to potential employers.

The girl involved in the ‘sexting’ incident and a second boy will also have their details kept on the database for life.

The teenager says he was 'flirting' with the girl before sending her a picture on the messaging application Snapchat (logo, pictured)

The boy took the image of himself, naked from the waist down, in his bedroom and sent it via Snapchat, believing it would automatically be deleted within seconds.

But the girl he was trying to impress quickly copied the image and shared it.

A friend warned him the next day.

Teaching staff were alerted and the boy was questioned by the assistant head teacher, while the WPC took detailed notes.

It was only after this meeting, during which he admitted everything after the teacher allegedly shouted in his face, that his mother was informed.

Greater Manchester Police discontinued their investigation ‘in the public interest’ but all the details were entered into the system.

These records could now be revealed to employers under a Disclosure and Barring Service check if years down the line he were to seek a job working with children.

The boy’s mother, who is in her 40s and lives in the Greater Manchester area, vowed last night to fight to clear his name.

‘If he was 18 he would have been seen as a victim in the eyes of the law and would have been able to take some action towards the girl who humiliated him,’ she said.

‘What has happened to him has seriously affected his life chances. Do we now narrow his horizons so that he does not consider a career that requires enhanced checks? Without any doubt this is a grave injustice. He has been treated worse than a criminal.’

She said she was astonished when the police officer first called.

The incident, deemed an example of 'sexting', has been recorded as a crime of making and distributing an indecent image

‘She kept referring to sex crimes,’ the mother said. ‘But if he had not admitted it – which he only did with a senior member of staff in his face – they would have had nothing. Where was the appropriate adult for my son? Who was there for him?

‘My son was not given the same protections that a criminal would have been given. He has learned a really harsh lesson but the way it has been dealt with is all wrong.’

When the mother complained about how her son had been treated, she claims the officer told her ‘You could make matters worse’ and said the boy could be added to the Sex Offenders’ Register.

Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, the mother said: ‘I think at best he was naive and at worst he was just a teenager. It is referred to as sexting, and apparently it happens all the time. It is just how teenagers flirt these days.’

She said she was called by the school-based police officer and told briefly what had happened before sitting down with her son and his father, whose house he had been staying at.

'He was in his bedroom at his dad's the night before and he was flirting with the girl and he sent a picture of himself by something called Snapchat,' she said.

The application allows users to take a picture or video, add a caption or doodle, and send it to a 'friend' which they can view for up to 10 seconds before it disappears.

However, there is an option to save the image, but the sender is notified this has been done.

Greater Manchester Police said it was recording the crime in accordance with strict national standards and Home Office rules.

A spokesman said: ‘The report of crime has been filed with the three children involved named and given an outcome of not in the public interest to prosecute. These reports remain in existence for 100 years in accordance with Management of Police Information.’

The mother added: 'I asked the police officer, why I wasn't informed, why I wasn't brought into school and she told me she didn't have to, that she had the power to deal with matters in school.

'So who was acting for my son? Who was stopping the questioning when it got too much?'

The boy told the BBC he was 'embarrassed' by the incident and now spends lunchtimes in the library to avoid being teased by classmates who have seen the image.

The school says all students are taught the dangers of this behaviour in assemblies and ICT lessons (file image)

TEENAGER IS VICTIM OF 'SOHAM LAW' AFTER SENDING NUDE PICTURE The schoolboy’s actions will remain on file for a century because police can decide who they prosecute but not what they record, legal experts say. He committed a crime by creating and distributing an indecent image of a child. It does not matter that he was the subject and took the image himself. The girl who circulated the image is not being investigated even though her actions could have fallen under ‘revenge pornography’ laws if she had been an adult. Although police dropped the inquiry, once alerted to the crime they were obliged to record it under rigid procedures brought in following the Soham murders in 2002. The Police National Database was created after Ian Huntley, who killed two ten-year-old girls, was able to work as a school caretaker because forces in Humberside and Cambridgeshire failed to share vital information that he had been accused of rape, indecent assault on an 11-year-old and sex with underage girls while living in Grimsby. The database has since been used millions of times to cross-check information about suspects. Lawyer Danielle Reece-Greenhalgh said the boy’s case highlights a basic unfairness in the system. ‘Police have discretion about what they charge and prosecute but they do not have discretion about what intelligence they record,’ she said. ‘As soon as police were involved they have got their obligation to act, when this could have been quite sensibly dealt with by the school.’ The schoolboy now faces having his actions disclosed to future employers if the information is deemed relevant. However, Miss Reece-Greenhalgh said a police officer with full access to the facts may choose not to disclose the information to an employer. ‘They must assess the eligibility or suitability of the information they hold and whether it is relevant and should be disclosed,’ she said. Advertisement

He said: 'I shouldn't have done it. It's just annoying really, something that I did when I was 14 could reflect badly in future.'

He added that the incident was not rare in his school and that it's something that he noticed happening 'quite frequently' around him.

'You know, you hear from a few people who have done it every week,' he added.

'I've not seen the image since but I know that some people still have it. A few people have said it before, threatened me when I've had a go at them.'

The case highlights how thousands of youngsters could be criminalised by exchanging explicit selfies.

One study estimated that more than four in ten British girls aged 13 to 17 had sent a pornographic photograph of themselves.

Anne Longfield, children’s commissioner for England, said more must be done to alert children to the dangers of sexting.

She said: 'Children and young people are now growing up in a digital age and we need to better understand what this means for all of us.

'Helping children to understand the consequences of inappropriate images of both themselves as senders and receivers is vital.

'Parents and schools have a very important role in explaining the consequences of sexting and sending illicit images of themselves or other young people.

'This case has brought to light the impact of the digital world. There is an important discussion to be had with the way police deal with these situations and I would be concerned if children were criminalised as a result.'

Lawyers fear many young people are becoming caught up in criminal inquiries as a result of the sexting epidemic. In some cases they are enduring investigations of up to two years during their formative years or crucial exams.