A school has sounded the alarm after an illegal picture was shared among pupils on social media.

In a stark warning, Canterbury’s Archbishops School alerted parents on June 21 about a child sharing the image with several pupils.

The letter home stressed parents and children should “understand the legal ramifications” for looking at such material on platforms like WhatApp, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

“It has come to our attention that an indecent photograph of a child - not from The Archbishop’s School - has been shared on social media with your child,” the letter says.

“We have acted accordingly to support the child involved as well as supporting the understanding of our students who have received access to the video that this image is inappropriate.

“It is essential that we highlight our concern with you as it is important that your child, and you as a parent or carer, understand the legal ramifications for viewing, downloading, saving or sharing such images or video footage.”

The school has asked any affected students to delete the content, adding: “Something of this nature saved to device or shared with others is deemed illegal.

“Please do ensure your child’s device does not have access to the photo.”

It continues: “We appreciate that this information may be alarming to you, but we are making you aware so that you can speak with your child to ensure they are not putting themselves at risk online in any way.

“Please note social media platforms include any form of communication that is utilised with an internet connection.

“This includes platforms such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram etc.

“All social media platforms have age limits, for example WhatsApp and Snapchat should not be accessed by young people below the age of 13.”

Headteacher David Elliot has said the staffing team “immediately followed our robust safeguarding protocols” after they became aware of the incident.

He told KentOnline: “The school was made aware that an inappropriate image was shared by a child - who does not attend The Archbishop’s School - with a very small number of our students.

“We immediately followed our robust safeguarding protocols to ensure that parents were contacted at the earliest opportunity to make them aware of the situation, to ensure that the image was permanently deleted from their child’s device and to support them with their parental responsibility regarding their child’s use of social media.

“Safeguarding our students is always of paramount importance to us and is an area in which our staff were identified in our most recent Ofsted inspection report as being ‘vigilant’.”

Archbishop’s School has 722 students on roll, and has a rating of Good from the education regulator.

More information and advice from the NSPCC on images of children being shared among peers can be found here.

It's a criminal offence to create or share explicit images of a child. However the law is intended to protect children and not criminalise them.

If sexting by a young person is reported to the police it will make a record but. depending on circumstances, may not take any formal action.