Follow Us 
Related News
Current Poll
| Police To Combat Teen ‘Sexting’ Trend |
 |
 |
 |
| News - Osawatomie | |||
| Written by Travis Perry | |||
| Wednesday, 03 March 2010 09:00 | |||
|
More than 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube in less time than it takes you to brush your teeth every morning. Since its inception only six years ago, Facebook has ballooned to more than 400 million active users; if it were a country, it would rank third in the world for population, coming ahead of the United States, but behind India and China. Every day, more than 50 million tweets, countless gigabytes of photos and innumerable status updates are tossed on the Internet from an ever-growing array of devices. While not exclusively the domain of youth, the social media phenomenon is a realm in which they are heavily invested. From planning events to simply keeping in touch, high-tech communication has become the lifeline for the so-called Millennial generation. However, with the advent of new technologies and opportunities, many get caught up in thinking “what can we do” and forego even considering “what should we do.” With a little guidance and some common sense, members of the Osawatomie Police Department and Osawatomie USD 367 hope to change that mind-set with a new school curriculum. If you ask him, Police Chief Mike Stiles will be frank about it: There’s a problem brewing among many local teenagers. From illicit picture messages sent from cell phone to cell phone to dangerous disclosures of information to strangers online and misconceptions regarding age-of-consent laws, the issues are plain to see, he said. Anymore, kids don’t fully understand the consequences that their virtual actions can have on their real lives. “Once a picture goes out on the Internet, it’s probably there forever,” Stiles said. “They’re going to pay in their professional life for something they did several years ago.” While the Police Department has seen few problems in 2010, Stiles and Officer Ted Bartlett said that near the end of last year, various problems seemed to crop up at least once a week. “We live in a very small community, and once your reputation is tarnished, it’s hard to live that down,” Bartlett said. The most common situation, Stiles said, involves a relationship gone sour between an 18-year-old high school boy and a girl under the age of 18. “(The belief of many young girls) was as long as they said it was OK, it’s OK,” Bartlett said about misconceptions regarding Kansas age-of-consent laws. More often than not, parents don’t know anything improper is happening until it’s over, Stiles said, and once that happens, messages start circulating and accusations start flying. “It’s an immaturity thing,” Bartlett said. “There are probably more kids that do it than we know about.” To counter the trend, Stiles and Bartlett have partnered with Osawatomie USD 367 staff members and administrators to construct a curriculum to educate youths at the middle or high school level about common-sense safety online, as well as the kind of repercussions their actions can have. At this point, nothing has been finalized, but the district is looking at instituting the program sometime in April, targeting either eighth-grade or freshman students. “It’s possible that you have a good kid who gets caught in a bad situation who doesn’t realize what one little click of the mouse or one photograph can do,” Superintendent Gary French said. “We need to get that information out there.”
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 512 Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
