Vocal Voices

Given the recent reports of endemic sexual abuse of girls in schools, is it not time to create more single-sex secondary schools?
It may not curb the excesses of social media, but it would at least reduce the opportunity for abuse in the educational setting, where girls are currently open targets and teaching staff simply can't cope.
Perhaps in this respect the Muslim and Jewish foundation schools have got it right .....

Sorry, but it is far too easy to dress this up as a school / college or university problem when it is a pupil / student / (un)social media problem. The above mentioned institutions have absolutely no control over what their pupils and students do in their own time when off site or at home.

By all means give the staff training to identify, understand and advise about the problem, but we are kidding ourselves if we think any of that will cure the problem. We are also kidding ourselves if we think that a lesson a week on respect, empathy, equality etc is going to change their behaviour when most things they see, choose to watch and what some call "entertainment", shows them the opposite.

This goes much deeper than in educational establishments, but they are an easy target.

So let's try and put this into perspective. #2 Grandson had a 15 year old girlfriend. She sent a personal pic to him which was not fit to be shared with the world.

Idiot that he is, he shared it with a "select few", I hesitate to call, "friends". Instantly it went viral and he was looking at "sexual abuse" and other charges. He was 16 at the time. Both of them were at school. Is this school "sexual abuse"? It probably happened during school time, but was invisible to the teachers and outside their control.

Fortunately the parents of the girl in question were horrified that she would do any such thing and the bulk of their ire was directed at her, helped stop the situation escalating. The idiot himself was subjected to a few uncomfortable lectures from several authorities and more than a few harsh words from the family, me included. To the tone of just what it means to be a "gentleman" and the fact that when you press "send" on anything, it now belongs to the entire world! Engage brain before pressing send. Firstly is this the person you want to be, sharing pictures like that with anyone. Secondly, assume the worst and click with caution.

It did not help that he was young in himself, very popular amongst the boys and girls from 13 up were buzzing around him like bees round honey (or flies round another substance).

The huge issues are around what happens "after". Was it abuse or was it not? Was it hormones to begin with and shame or spite after? I recall the 70's being much like this in certain sections of the school, you don't need social media for these things to spin out of control. Except that very few cried foul as the censure was quite severe and consequences on the perpetrator was usually minimal unless actual physical violence could be proven.

The problem is that young boys (and some girls) are getting easy access to porn, some of which is quite extreme, using violence and control, so the parameters of what is considered normal have changed Personally, if one of mine had received an unsolicited sexual image I wouldn't have bothered with the school - IMO schools are far too likely to hush things like this up, to save their reputations. We see this crop up in the media time after time, re bullying. I would go to the police, maybe a few convictions would give a "short sharp shock" to their contemporaries...

I'd have supported him being in front of the police too Kaz.

The issue here was that he was too stupid to realise that the first thing they were going to do was push it out to everyone they knew and not wise enough to realise that it was an extremely personal thing to be sending to "anyone" beyond the person it was originally sent to.

Excuse me, but I don't get this schools thing.

Jordan is in his bedroom and downloads a porn pic and sends it to Jessica. She is 'OMG Jordan!' and posts it on, or he does. OK, they might be pupils at the same school / college, but they are individuals acting as such. Even if he did it at lunch time it is still nothing to do with the school / college.

These berks acted independently of the schools / colleges and the education system. Please stop putting the blame for all this in the wrong place.

Absolutely, Frank!

Suff, both could have been in serious trouble - her for sending it, and him for passing it on.

Pair of idiots.

WM, it is always easy to blame the schools because they are in loco parentis and the parents just cant be bothered to parent. Easier to blame the schools and we are long past the time where the argument that handing yiur phone in at the door will work.

I am briniging this back.

A new app is being lauded as a "world first" as it will allow young people to "take back control". It's good, it's the bees knees. They can now hold (un)social media to account for their own stupidity. Bless.

OK. I get that, but why is nobody asking what prompts children, mainly girls, to take nude photos of themselves and copy them on to 'friends' when these 'friends' might then inadvertently or maliciously, re-post them to the internet?

If the individuals did not do these things then there would not be a 'problem' or am I missing something?

I know, let's blame the schools.