Guidance issued to schools in England this week urges teachers to use tough new powers to seize devices suspected of being used to share explicit photos or videos.
Teachers are being told to confiscate pupils' mobile phones and search devices for pornography as part of a new clampdown on "sexting".
Guidance issued to schools in England this week urges teachers to use tough new powers to seize devices suspected of being used to share explicit photos or videos.
Schools should consider informing the police over any extreme material found on pupils' phones and ensure that images are taken off social networking websites. The document also tells schools to offer counselling to pupils featured in images and contact parents "so that they can keep a watchful eye over their child".
A study by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children last year reported that up to 40% of young people had been involved in "sexting", with teenage girls in particular facing pressure from classmates to provide sexually explicit pictures of themselves.
Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, welcomed the guidance, which has been produced in conjunction with a range of education groups, charities and councils.
"The problem of 'sexting' - and the exposure of children to pornographic images through mobile devices - poses real and serious challenges for parents, head teachers and school staff," he said. "It exemplifies the way technology blurs the boundaries between school life and the wider world."
The brochure - titled Sexting in schools: advice and support around self-generated images - urges schools to use the Education Act 2011, which gives teachers in England more powers to search pupils for inappropriate material and seize property deemed to be causing a disruption.
"A device can be examined, confiscated and securely stored if there is reason to believe it contains indecent images or extreme pornography," it says. "If any illegal images of a child are found you should consider whether to inform the police."
The document says that any indecent images on social networking websites should be reported "to the site hosting it". The brochure also makes it clear that pupils may require considerable support if their own picture has been distributed around the school, with teachers being put on "high alert" if they are bullied by other children.
Peter Davies, the chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which helped produce the document, said: "There are very real risks with this activity by young people, from bullying to the sharing of these images among sex offenders."
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