Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for a ban on under-18s being able to text each other sexually explicit images.
The proposal came as Hunt said the technology industry needed to take steps to prevent cyberbullying, as he gave evidence to the Commons health committee on suicide prevention efforts on Tuesday.
Sharing sexual images online has a significant impact on young people's mental health, Hunt said.
“I think social media companies need to step up to the plate and show us how they can be the solution to the issue of mental ill-health amongst teenagers, and not the cause of the problem,” Hunt said.
“There is a lot of evidence that the technology industry, if they put their mind to it, can do really smart things.
“For example, I just ask myself the simple question as to why it is that you can’t prevent the texting of sexually explicit images by people under the age of 18, if that’s a lock that parents choose to put on a mobile phone contract.
"Because there is technology that can identify sexually explicit pictures and prevent it being transmitted."
Jeremy Hunt proposes ban on sexting for under-18s yet 16-year-olds can legally have sex He must be planning to privatise sexual intercourse
He continued: “I ask myself why we can’t identify cyberbullying when it happens on social media platforms by word pattern recognition, and then prevent it happening.
"I think there are a lot of things where social media companies could put options in their software that could reduce the risks associated with social media, and I do think that is something which they should actively pursue in a way that hasn’t happened to date.”
In the UK, the age of consent is 16.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Protecting children from the risks they might face either online or on their phones is a top priority, and the UK is leading the way in promoting safety.
"We are working with a wide range of organisations and parents through the UK Council for Child Internet safety, and they recently provided guidance to schools and colleges on how to deal with instances of sexting.
"New proposals in the Digital Economy Bill will also block pornographic websites that refuse to stop children accessing explicit content."
"The whole of Government is committed to making sure children stay safe when using technology, and we will not let up in our efforts.”
A study published in the Journal of Paediatrics last year found that more than half of teens who were anonymously surveyed admitted to having sent sexts.
Battles over the sharing of nude imagery on social media are nothing new, with Facebook and Instagram – which is owned by Facebook – taking a particularly hard stance, although this is usually concerned with the public posting of images, rather than via direct messages.
There are currently no restrictions on images that can be shared via text message.
On Twitter, Hunt's proposal was met with a mix of amusement and bafflement. Many believed it might prove difficult to stop teens sexting.
If Jeremy Hunt tries to ban sexting for the under 18s all it will do is drive it underground into poetry and metaphor.
Some suspected that teens might respond with characteristic rebelliousness to Hunt's suggested sext ban.
Teenagers of the world rise up. Your time to tweet "choke me daddy" at @jeremy_hunt is now. https://t.co/avU3zbvWQH
@Jeremy_Hunt Choke me Daddy! Tear me like a Buller initiation rite...
While others felt the health secretary might be better concerning himself with more pressing issues within the NHS.
The NHS is at breaking point and all Jeremy Hunt can worry about is teens sexting? #bbcambulances
On Wednesday, an investigation by BBC News revealed that ambulance services are struggling to reach life-or-death calls in time as a result of huge waiting times for handing patients over to overstretched A&E departments.
If a patient has a life-threatening condition, they should be reached within eight minutes, but only one of 13 ambulance services is meeting this target. A freedom of information request by the BBC also found that the number of ambulances queuing for more than 15 minutes to pass patients on to doctors has risen by 52% in two years, to take up over 500,000 hours of ambulance crews' time in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 2015-16.
After last week's Autumn Statement saw no additional funding granted to the NHS, doctors warned that "catastrophe" looms over the health service if more money is not provided to tackle staff shortages.