Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Worldwide, Millennials monetize web cams with youth and beauty
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Monday, November 9, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Colorado Students Caught Trading Nude Photos by the Hundreds
from nytimes
By KATIE ROGERSNOV. 6, 2015
By KATIE ROGERSNOV. 6, 2015
Students in Cañon City, Colo., could face criminal charges after an investigation found they were trading hundreds of nude pictures of themselves and other teenagers on their phones using special apps to keep the images secret, the schools superintendent said Friday.
The investigation began on Monday, and officials at Cañon City High School determined that students had been circulating between 300 and 400 illicit photos involving at least 100 students, said George Welsh, the superintendent of the Cañon City School District. Some of the students in the photos were eighth graders, and several of the students who possessed the pictures were members of the school’s football team, Mr. Welsh said.
Capt. Jim Cox of the Cañon City Police Department said Friday that no arrests had been made in the case.
Mr. Welsh said that the students had been using a “photo vault” app on their phones to hide activity from parents and teachers. The app looks like a calculator. After questioning the students, school officials and parents were able to figure out how the app worked and unlock the photos, but not without some fumbling around.
“I do believe one of our high school assistant principals was familiar with this particular app,” Mr. Welsh said. School officials and parents made the students divulge their passwords.
The photo vault apps have been available for Apple and Android phones for years and are the subject of many blog posts seeking to help adults understand how children conceal material on their phones.
Mr. Welsh, who arrived at Cañon City from another Colorado district four months ago, said that many school officials had not been “very good at targeting what’s appropriate with personal use” when it comes to students’ devices. The high school has about 1,000 students in grades 9 through 12, in a district with about 3,800.
Mr. Welsh could not say how many students were involved in the photo-sharing ring. But officials were able to determine that some photos had been taken on school property, in a locker room. The school canceled the football game scheduled for this weekend. The decision was made after football coaches said they could not confidently put players from the 45-player varsity squad on the field without knowing how many students had been involved, Mr. Welsh said.
As in many small towns, high school football is important to the city of 16,000. The decision to cancel the game and put the 100-student program out of commission was not easy, he said. “Had we won,” he said, “we would’ve tied for the league championship and had a real good chance to go on to the state playoffs.”
Mr. Welsh said that several students had been suspended, but would not say how many or if they were affiliated with the football team. No students have been expelled, he said. Officials were still trying to determine if the photo-sharing involved coercion or intimidation.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Wednesday, the school said the investigation had stemmed from student reports and a tip left with Colorado’s Safe2Tell program, which allows students to anonymously report threatening behavior. Students have said that the photo-sharing was widespread and occurred over a long period of time. Mr. Welsh questioned that claim, though he did say that authorities were still investigating.
“The total scope of this is not out there,” he said. “It’s possible that even as large as it is, all we’ve got is the tip of the iceberg.” It is probably a nationwide problem affecting other schools, he said.
The statement from the school district said that the Fremont County district attorney, Thom Ledoux, would be assessing whether to bring charges. Police officials are trying to determine if any adults were involved, and to find out if students were coerced to pose for any of the photos, the district said. Mr. Welsh said that he had “no indication” that any adults or teachers were involved, or that any of the photo-sharing occurred on school devices.
After the news broke, parents turned out in large numbers Thursday night at a community meeting with school and law enforcement officials. Some asked if their children could face criminal charges for sending a photo, as opposed to keeping or distributing the material. Mr. Ledoux told them that an underage student who sent an illicit photo could be liable, as could someone who kept the picture or sent it to someone else, Mr. Welsh said.
The superintendent said that the district attorney would evaluate the material on a case-by-case basis.
“I don’t think he wants to prosecute 100 kids for a class 3 felony,” Mr. Welsh said. The authorities, he said, would “deal with childhood mistakes as childhood mistakes, and deal with real cruelty as such.”
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