FOR anyone who completed their education before mobile phones became ubiquitous, it can be difficult to fully comprehend the seismic changes these devices have made to school life.
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Difficult, but not impossible.
Think back to your own school years and imagine every student armed with a device capable of not just making calls and texts, but shooting high-resolution photos and videos.
And that same gadget can then be used to circulate those files not only to one’s peer group but all around the world through the incredible reach of social media.
Did you ever get into a fight? In years gone by, it would be the talk of the school for a day or two and then quickly forgotten as another scandal rocked the student population.
Not these days. If you’re in a fight, you can bet there is at least one person standing around filming it for posterity.
Did you ever fall victim to a classroom prank? Did your bathers slip off at the swimming carnival? Did you get drunk and throw up at a party?
The proliferation of mobile phones these days means there is a very real possibility such indignities will be seen far beyond eyeball witnesses in real time.
But a disturbing trend, of which the full scale is only becoming apparent, is that these devices are being used to disseminate more than just the run-of-the-mill humiliations.
There is a thriving trade in the procurement and circulation of naked pictures of mostly young girls in schools across Victoria.
It represents a dramatic escalation in a behaviour that has the potential to cause serious, long-term damage.
There are, of course, legal ramifications for those who trade in this smut – and so there should be.
But more than that, once a compromising video or picture is taken, it can never be completely erased in this digital age.
Something that might initially be shared with a single person can quickly end up on internet forums all over the world.
As the saying goes, with great power comes responsibility and mobile phones are nothing if not powerful.
Parents of teenagers with phones must be acutely aware of what they are using them for and not leave them to their own devices.
The consequences are simply too great.
- Ross Tyson, deputy editor