PARENTS were confronted at a public presentation in Portland last week, hearing concerning stories about local secondary school students, and the influences that are the likely root of the problem.

On Wednesday night, presenters Melinda Tankard Reist and Daniel Principe from advocacy group Collective Shout spoke to around 70 community members, after an intensive three days of workshops with all students and teachers from the three secondary schools in the district.

Collective Shout was brought out for the week by a joint effort from local organisation SayNo2FamilyViolence and the schools, raising over $28,000 in last year’s community fundraiser SharkPitch event.

Armed with colloquial stories and with a broad range of research and statistics, the pair painted a dire picture of the sexualisation of young people through media and harm caused by early exposure to pornography, which they said is increasingly common in the modern day.

Among these were stories they had heard from local students of the extent of the problem locally.

“The stories are similar everywhere we go because if kids are online, they're being exposed to the same kind of content, porn predators, explicit imagery, bullying, violence,” Ms Tankard Rest told the Observer after the meeting.

“Every kid is being exposed to this and they're being exposed younger - we have heard some particularly distressing stories here about child abuse, about non-consensual image sharing, about Snapchat groups where boys are sharing images of hundreds of underage girls, and we’ve also heard stories of extreme self-harm.

“But every story is unique, and many of the problems are in common.”

All three principals of the secondary schools were at the community event on Wednesday evening and said they were proud to have worked together to put Collective Shout in front of their charges, and had a clear process for supporting students who spoke out in the sessions.

“Our kids are really good, they’ve all got a good relationship with at last one staff member who they’ll tell, and the staff are all really well trained,” said Bayview College principal Michelle Kearney.

“We have to make a report if we get a disclosure, through mandatory reporting laws, all our staff know that and refer it wherever that needs to go, and is followed up appropriately.”

The message from Ms Tankard Reist and Mr Prentice, which are tailored to suit different age groups, broadly line up with consent and healthy relationships topics taught as part of the regular principles, but pack a bit more punch in their delivery, according to the three school heads.

“It's not as confronting as this, and they get sick of hearing from teachers all the time," said Portland Secondary College principal Jo Kindred.

“They definitely take it in more like this, with someone from the outside talking to them.

"There's also the power of sitting amongst students from other schools, not just in your own school, and the fact that we did this together as a trio of schools with support from the community, they see that this is actually really serious.

"We've cancelled timetables, we've rearranged their entire school week, so everyone's realized, the three schools are behind this, we're behind this, and we value it."

Heywood and District Secondary College principal Kelly Webster said she sat in on some of the sessions, and said they have given the community a strong foundation for promoting more respectful behaviour.

“Some were shocked, some were ho-hum, some were upset,” she said.

“I think some had some realisations about their own lives and what they are doing, it’s something we’ll keep going on with and following up down the track.”

Ms Tankard Rest said she was impressed by the schools and community’s efforts to address the issue of family violence and mistreatment of women, which she said is exacerbated by the portrayal of women a and girls in media.

“There's a ton of research now that wasn't even around 10 years ago that say the evidence is solid about the harms to children.

“Unrealistic expectations about sex pressures on girls, sexual harassment, believing and rightness, becoming more aggressive, the stories girls are telling us are getting worse and they're getting worse younger.

“We want parents to understand that their kids will be exposed to porn. It's inevitable.

“We want them to understand why that's harmful, so we unpack the research with them, and we want them to have open channels of communication with their child.”

Mr Principe, who primarily works with boys about reimagining the concept of masculinity, said he has a lot on empathy for young men and the challenges and pressures put on them as they grow up.

“People keep asking why some boys aren’t being respectful or decent and I look at the lack of role modelling, and the challenges they're facing,” he said.

“They’re being bombarded with predators with bots dropping in inappropriate content, we’ve got to actually step in there and help guide them, we've made it really difficult for them.”

He said boys he spoke to in the district have been “courageous” in their honesty with him, and urged parents to support their sons if they are feeling emotional or vulnerable.

 “I always reassure adults that you create that space, you champion them to be the best version of themselves, and they just relish that, they love that environment.”