Cellphone porn becoming prevalent problem at school

Some parents of students in the Warren County School System are finding themselves shocked at what they are discovering on their children?s cellphones: pornographic photos and videos.

?I checked my son?s phone and was really upset about what I found,? said one parent, who wished to remain anonymous to avoid embarrassment for her child. ?It was a porno video, really gross. I couldn?t believe it. I took his phone away immediately.?

The parent began asking around and soon found the problem is widespread.

?I?ve heard it?s all over the high school,? she said. ?This is just terrible. My son is only 14, I don?t want him looking at this kind of stuff. Apparently these things are passed around from phone to phone. A lot of parents probably don?t know this is going on. I sure didn?t.?

The advent of video and photo-capable cellphones is ushering in a new type of problem for harried parents and school officials. While parents have some control of the Internet while their children are at home, cellphones are a different matter.

Parents have no way of knowing what kind of messages may be coming into their children?s portable communications device, many of which can access the Internet, though on a limited basis. Most feel the materials are usually downloaded from the Internet and then transferred to the cellphones for distribution, which seems to have become somewhat of a status symbol for some students.

Of course the main cellphone feature generating the problem is photo and video messaging and e-mail. Students can use their phones to pass these types of materials among their circle of friends, and so on from friend to friend, resulting in the distribution of the material growing exponentially from phone to phone.

Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale says schools are aware of the problem which is one of the reasons the school system has put stringent regulations on cellphone use at schools. Hale says the school monitors computer use and uses technology to limit this kind of materials, but has little control over cellphones.

?With our computers we have firewalls in place that block a lot of this so it can?t come through,? Hale said. ?But on individual cellphones, there?s nothing we can do about that, other than by policy the students can?t have them during the school day.?

Hale said one infamous local incident involving an inappropriate video brought the issue to light in a big way.

?The obvious one was the Pam Rogers situation,? Hale said, ?to where that particular video, and I?m quoting someone from the high school here, that one was all over the place. A lot of the kids had seen it and that was the item of the day at that time.?

Even more problematic are situations where the inappropriate materials haven?t been downloaded, but produced by the students themselves featuring, in some cases, a rather shocking subject ? other students. Hale said there has been more than one case of this type of material, some from willing participants, but others where students tried to take photos surreptitiously.

?Mr. Bennett at the high school reported a couple of instances where a student wouldn?t want their face to be seen, a female student,? Hale said. ?But they would hold their blouse up to cover her face, and then the other student would take a picture of her exposed breasts.?

Hale said most of these individuals probably aren?t aware of how serious this kind of behavior can be for high school age students.

?Actually, some students have gone to juvenile court over it,? Hale said.

According to Hale, depending on the age of the students, the charges could be devastating.

When these incidents occur, Hales says the school is required to report it.

?The DA has been involved in a few cases,? Hale said. ?If the student taking the picture is 18 and the student being photographed is, say, 16, then that?s child pornography. Which is a very serious charge. You don?t get that waiver like statutory rape where you have to be four years older for it to be a crime. If you?re doing that, then you?re distributing child pornography.?

Hales says parents should make routine checks of their child?s cellphone to determine if this type of material is being viewed or distributed. Like most communications technology, it?s up to the parent to monitor their child?s usage.

Parents do have some options. They can provide the child with a phone without photo or video features. And for parents who want their child to have the capability to take photos, some cellphone companies, like Verizon, have a service where incoming or outgoing photos and videos can be blocked, but still allow photos to be taken and stored on the individual phone.

Parents should contact their cellphone company for more information about these services.