14-year-old girl bares all at school - via cell phone
So, this one time, at band camp…photos of you doing a keg stand are taken and end up on Facebook. Not a big deal, until a potential employer checks out your online persona and decides maybe you aren’t cut from the same moral cloth they’d prefer for an employee.
It’s been a concern of college students and even some high-schoolers lately as job providers have realized you can learn a lot about people based on what they, or more likely their friends, have posted about them online.
Now, a 14-year-old in Pinckney, Michigan has gone one step further – actually distributing inappropriate and illegal pictures of herself via cell phone.
Apparently the girl decided it would be fun or funny to snap a photo in the buff and send it to a few friends during the summer.
The picture spread like wildfire throughout cell phones held by her classmates and now the local sheriff’s department is investigating charges against those who have been found to have child porn on their phones.
The Pinckney school district has suspended 10 students – including the girl in the photo – for violating cell phone policy because they aren’t supposed to be using them during the school day.
As the world changes, we must constantly strive to make sure kids are keeping up with technology so they can get the full benefit of its capabilities. But are we failing to keep up with the moral and ethical lessons that must be learned as well?
“All the world’s a stage” was never more true than now when all the world’s available on that cell phone in your pocket.
What are you doing to make sure the kids in your life are being careful about social networking and the instant distribution of information to those whom they want to share with and many more whom they don’t?
Article Tags: cell phone | Facebook | social networking
Filed under: Education, News article, Self promo, Viral, social media
Lesson #1: Her parents are at fault for not teaching her self-respect and that what she did was inappropriate for someone her age
Lesson #2: You obviously can’t trust your best girlfriends at that age. If they were truly good friends, they would not have passed the photo on in the first place.
Lesson #3: Kids will be kids, and yes, they will pass around the photo, for fun, for embarrassment, for whatever. Chances are, it’s not being used for sexual reasons, they’re sharing it simply because they can. Is it wrong? Yes, but so is smoking, drinking and many other activities these kids do and the parents and administration simply look the other way on.
Lesson #4: You want to make the issue go away? Stop making it an issue. Don’t try suspending all 200+ kids; don’t say they’re suspended for “violating cell phone policy” when you know it’s a cop-out; simply let it go, and move on. The longer it’s an issue, the bigger it gets and the worse off everyone looks.
Self respect is definitely an issue here. A while back there were a series of PSA’s that were designed to show kids how what they did online spreads like wildfire and is out there for ever. Maybe this girl should have watched this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOwpGF1SOQM
Update: Another inappropriate cell phone picture distributed at a school in Livingston County. That’s the same Michigan county where Pinckney is located.
http://tinyurl.com/5hojuu
Update from the Associated Press:
Monday, December 15, 2008
No charges in Pinckney explicit photos case
PINCKNEY — The Livingston County prosecutor says he won’t file charges against students who distributed explicit cell phone pictures of a 14-year-old girl.
Prosecutor David Morse told reporters today that Pinckney High School and parents handled the matter appropriately. Morse says no purpose would be served by putting the teens on the state sex offender registry.
The sheriff’s department in October confiscated a dozen mobile phones after the girl took a photo showing her genitals and sent it to friends. Authorities say about 200 people wound up getting the pictures.
About 20 students were disciplined.
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