The team works with teenagers, their parents and teachers to put a stop to the behaviour before those involved land police charges.

Underage sexting carries hefty penalties including a maximum jail sentence of 15 years for the creation, possession or distribution of child pornography. Three male teenagers have been charged under the laws in the ACT in the past three years.

Youth liaison officer Clare McGettrick said teens all over Canberra were sending sexual images of themselves to others.

The community safety team mostly dealt with students in grades seven to nine, she said.

"Normally the situation is it's in a high school and it's young people who have had friends tell teachers that this is going on," she said.

"Most of the children are silent and reports from the parents after are 'the message was driven home, he got home and cried'."

Up to 16 per cent of reports to the Children's eSafety Commissioner in the past quarter were linked with sexting and Kids Helpline reported 185 contacts on the subject last year.

Australia's largest underage sexting survey, released by the Australian Institute of Criminology last year, revealed almost half of the 2000 respondents had sent a sexual picture or video of themselves to someone else.

Most sexting took place between people in committed relationships and the research found little evidence of peer pressure to engage in the practice, with young people instead viewing it as an enjoyable element of an intimate relationship.

Co-author Murray Lee said the results showed most education programs were missing the mark.

"They're on the one hand saying young women do it because they don't respect themselves or they want people to think more of them or be popular … but the majority of young people told us in our work they do it to feel sexy and confident, they do it as a sexy present for their boyfriend or girlfriend or they do it to be fun and flirtatious and many do it because they received one," he said.

"On top of that those sort of messages that are sort of aimed at abstinence, the horse has bolted when it comes to all of that. With half of young people aged between 13 and 18 having done this, there's no chance of putting the genie back in the bottle."

While Mrs McGettrick urged people to abstain, warning of the potential consequences, Professor Murray Lee said sexting was likely to become more common.

"I think there will come a time where it will be so normal that people are not bothered by it any more. That may not be a world that we as adults like, but that's the reality."