In the minute-long advert, 14 families are featured celebrating Christmas. In one scene, a family that appeared to feature three Muslim women and a young child embracing each other in a tinsel-decorated house with a wreath hanging on the front door. They are seen to exchange bags at a front door. This is the first time that Muslims have been represented by Tesco in a marketing campaign.

Some took to social media to express their displeasure.  According to the Daily Mirror, a twitter user wrote: “I wonder will they have a white family celebrating a Muslim holiday…. political correctness is ruining the country. Tesco have lost my £.”

Another wrote: “How dare you feature a Muslim family in your CHRISTMAS advert!!! They do not celebrate CHRISTIAN festival! #willnotshopintesco.”

However, Zohra Khaku, CEO of Halal Gems also tweeted, “What’s the point of having a Muslim family in the ad if not including them by catering for them?” in response to the reply that Tesco would not provide halal turkeys for purchase.

According to The Sun, a spokesman for Tesco responded by declaring: “Everyone is welcome at Tesco this Christmas and we’re proud to celebrate the many ways our customers come together over the festive season”.

The ad – released as part of the retailer’s ‘Everyone’s Welcome’ campaign – shows different families celebrating the festivities over a traditional Turkey dinner.

An app called Oyoty has been developed with a friendly ‘bot’ which will warn young people before they send out explicit messages, images or send personal details out.

A bot is a software application that runs automated tasks and may also have the ability to convincingly simulate how a human would behave as a conversational partner (known as a chat bot).

The app also uses artificial intelligence to detect when an image shows too much flesh and suggests to the child to rethink before sending it out. It can also send an alert to parents or guide the young person on how to delete the image, without the image being stored by the app or on the phone itself.

The Government’s children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield, is one of a number of people who are currently campaigning to make using the internet safer.

According to the Mail on Sunday, she said: “The internet is difficult to police and it will require creative thinking to overcome that.

“Apps like this make a start. It gives children the chance to reconsider a post, possibly sent in haste, but not in a preachy way.

“This is giving some power back to children and parents.”

Cases of sexting involving children have more than doubled over the last two years, with the police logging 6,238 offences in England and Wales last year. Facebook and Snapchat have come under criticism from child-safety campaigners for not doing enough to solve this problem.

However, the exact number of students affected is still unknown.

In a statement from the school, Mr Van Dam’s employment was terminated the day after they heard of the complaint.

The statement went on to say: “This case is in the hands of our criminal justice system and we trust that justice will be served.

“Though the number of charges do not necessarily reflect the number of students, we are grieved again as we hear the extent of the charges.

“We’ve wept, now it’s time to weep again. We’ve prayed, now we need to continue praying. We’ve brought our anger and fears to the Lord, and now we need to lay those feelings again at His feet.

“We praise God that your testimony has brought to light a dark secret that none of us adults knew was there.

“Please know that thousands are lifting you before the throne of your Father in heaven… trust Him to restore you completely.”

In the wake of the events, the school encouraged students to inform the school if they had not done so already, of any abuse they had suffered stating:

“If this news especially hurts because you have suffered or are suffering abuse, we encourage you to bring it out of the realm of secrecy, so that it loses its powerful grip on you.

“We encourage you to talk to a professional Christian counselor.”

The school also added 1 Peter 1:6-9 had “been especially encouraging” to them.