A school in the West Flemish city of Bruges has contacted the police after some of its pupils were added to the membership lists of pornographic groups on the social media site Snapchat. The pupils that attend the Christus Koning School were unwittingly added to several snapchat groups in which explicit images are shared. A pupil told staff at the school that porn had been sent to her Snapchat account.
Around 200 children including pupils at the school (all aged 12 and younger) have been added to Snapchat groups they hadn’t asked to join. Snapchat is an app where photos and images are shared and then disappear very quickly. In this case as yet unidentified Snapchat user shared pornographic material with minors that they had added to their group without the children knowing.
A pupil at the Christus Koning primary school in Bruges that had received unsolicited indecent images decided to inform the Head. The Headteacher immediately sent an e-mail to the parents of all the children at the school.
The email reads “Yesterday, we discovered that several 6th year pupils had been unwittingly added to snapchat groups. A group was created with around 200 members. Through this group, images were spread to members that include some of our pupils. When we saw the posts, as adults and as teachers we ourselves were very shocked.”
Police investigation
The school’s Headmaster Ruben Vandendriessche told VRT News that "It is the case that a pupil approached us and explained what was going on. We decided to report it to the police so that the images can be investigated and they can find out who is creating the groups and distributing the images. That person isn’t necessarily from our school. Our pupils were just added to the group.”
Bruges police confirm that an invesigation is ongoing “Our Cybercrime Unit is investigating the images and the messages. They are drafting a crime report and it will then be up to the prosecutors’ office as to what happens next”.
Meanwhile, the school has decided to give its pupils lessons on the dangers of online apps and to teach them how they can secure their accounts effectively. In addition to this, parents will be given tips and a handbook on how they can ensure that their children are safe when they go onto the internet.