Mobile menace a fret to parents
October, 15
So next time you buy your children a mobile phone do give a thought whether he/she needs that or just you are pushing your children to the wrong path. Now a days these modern day device is seen in the hands of almost all youngsters. But the matter of serious concern is that, growing number of children do possess indecent photographs of other children on their phones. This tendency had triggered a concern for parents to check the mobile phones of their children to avoid such indecent habits in them.
In has been seen that regularly children possess such disturbing and indecent images on their phones said detective sergent Andy Jones, of child protection unit at Lothian and Borders Police. He added I would check their phones regularly, because you would be amazed how often young people have indecent photographs of other children. Further he said, semi-naked pictures of children are termed indecent and taking such pictures of under-16s without there prior consent is also illegal.
Such possession of images can ruin the child’s future as legally they can be put on the sex offenders register, which gives police the charge to monitor them regularly. Also it can result to baring the children to enter any professions. This is serious offense which today’s teenagers are not aware of. Mostly take this as fun and get to know its consequences in later stage. All this makes parents to be more watchful as what there child is doing and checking the mobile phones at regular intervals.
It was also known that recently three secondary students in East Lothian were suspended from school for disturbing the photo of a half naked boy using their mobile phone and internet. This problem has now taken a huge shape and rapidly such cases are reported in almost all schools. You would not believe the number of referrals we get from schools saying they have concerns about pictures on mobile phones, said Joan Tranent, a team leader at East Lothian’s social-work department.
With children exposed to internet, it has become very easy for them to get such obscene pictures downloaded. Also teenagers use to flash their cameras at nigh parties and drunken parties taking snaps without any permission. It has been reported that about dozen of such cases of indecent images of pupils circulating in schools have been found in East Lothian. Such incidents points out that time has come to take some action, these problem can only be tackled by the help of both parents and school management who can keep an eye what children are doing with these communicative tool.
One more matter of concern is the cyber spread, now such cases are not confined to any particular region or place; this problem is mostly seen in all countries of the world. With the development of technology more and more children are becoming victims of such crimes unknowingly. The major area to be highlighted is the awareness which these teenagers require to understand what they are into and what such actions can result them into.
Taking a step forward to curb this growing tendency, an initiative has been taken to educate children about the danger of both mobile phones and internet by Musselburgh Grammar School in East Lothian. Such positive measures are the need of the hour to put a halt to such cases. So now its up to the parents who should come up to protect their wards before they fell into the clutches of this obscene side of technology.