What Does ‘Do You Send’ Mean? A Guide For Parents

From chatting about larping to telling mates to ‘call an Uber’, there’s always some new terminology or phrase entering teen vocabulary – often fuelled by the latest TikTok trends and viral memes.

And with the school holidays finally coming to an end, it’s likely you’ve heard – or seen – a lot more of it over the summer.

Research from Tesco Mobile reveals 70% of parents have struggled to understand their child’s texts or social posts because of slang.

You might already know the meaning of some terms – chopped is now another word for ugly apparently, while aura is all about how cool or uncool something is.

But with three in 10 (30% of) parents not knowing what “do you send?” means, we thought we’d weigh in on one of the more dicey slang terms you’ll definitely want to know about.

In short, it’s a request to send nude images. Whether you’ve spotted someone asking this in social media comments or direct messages linked to your teen’s account or not, it’s worth having a chat with them about it.

It can be helpful to tell your child that it’s never OK for people to ask for private, body or underwear photos, explaining that once a photo is sent to someone, they lose control of it forever. It’s also worth reiterating to them that people might not always be who they say they are online.

Once an image has been shared, children are at risk of blackmail – and over time, the types of images requested could become more explicit.

Earlier this year, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warned child sexual extortion cases in the UK have soared by 72% in the space of a year.

Criminals are tricking young people into sending nude or sexual images of themselves which are then used to blackmail them. In 97% of cases, the victims are boys.

This is a tricky situation to be in and will likely leave you feeling upset, confused or angry about it. If this does happen, the NSPCC warns against shouting at them or making it feel like it’s their fault, especially as they’re probably already very anxious.

Reassure them that you’ll help support them through it and remind them of who they can talk to, whether that’s you, another adult or Childline.

“Ask open questions such as ‘what happened?’ rather than asking ‘why have you done it?’, as the latter may stop them from opening up to you,” advises the NSPCC.

If your child agrees to it, it can also be helpful to speak to the safeguarding lead at their school, as they may be able to help stop images or videos being shared among classmates.

It’s also worth telling them about the Internet Watch Foundation’s Report Remove tool, which allows young people to discreetly report a nude image or video shared online. The IWF will then review it and work to have it removed if it breaks the law.

Detective Sergeant Dave Moorman, from Warwickshire Police’s Online Child Exploitation Team, previously urged teenagers to tell a trusted adult – like a teacher, parent or the police – as soon as possible after sending a nude image.

“I can’t emphasise this enough, you will not get into trouble, and we can put measures in place to help stop the spread of the image,” he said.