Bullying, fighting, cheating — educators have always had to deal with things other than education in classrooms. But technology has brought them an endless stream of additional, and much more serious, problems.
Lt. Adam Flowers with the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office told News9.com that issues with sexting have become rampant and dangerous. He said that students as young as 11 years old are sexting and are carrying those conversations, photos and videos into school hours and onto school grounds.
“It happens from home, and they bring it into the school. They’ll have truth-and-dare-type scenarios where they’ll try to do crazy pictures maybe somewhere at school,” Lt. Flowers said. “I’ve seen videos and pictures that are triple-X rated. It’s awful.”
Students have been caught trading photos and videos, and some have even been charged with child pornography because they wouldn’t stop distributing the photos.
“Kids don’t realize what they are doing; they only think in the now. They don’t think about the future consequences,” Flowers explained.
Police are urging parents to monitor their children’s phone use and apps, as students don’t realize the photos can be used for blackmail or obtained by child predators.
