Henry County Schools’ students are beginning the 2020-2021 school year in a virtual learning environment and parents are experiencing more challenges than just technology and connectivity issues. 

  Last week Henry County Schools issued a statement confirming that a student in the district shared inappropriate content during a virtual class session, just two days into the 2020-2021 school year.

  “It was brought to our attention that a high school student in our district was found to have shared inappropriate imagery during one of our remote classes,” said a statement from Henry County Schools. “The isolated matter was investigated by administrators and law enforcement officials, and appropriate action is now being taken according to code of conduct violations and laws broken.”

  Henry County Schools further stated that such behavior would not be tolerated. 

  “This type of behavior is not allowed in our district at any level,” continued the statement. “Students found to be in violation of our code of conduct, including participation and actions through the digital platform are subject to disciplinary action.”

  The statement follows a post that was placed on the Henry County Police Department’s Facebook page on Tuesday, August 18.

  “Students: If you stream pornography in an online class, myself and the Henry County GA Sheriff’s Office will find you and charge you with life-altering charges,” read the Henry County Police Department’s post. “We’re 24 hours in and I’m over it. This is not a joke. You could face manufacture and distribution of child pornography charges, child molestation charges, and have to register as a sex offender.”

  The department further stated, in  reply to a Facebook user’s comment asking for more information, “We’re seeing the students logging in on their phones and sharing their screens from there, or just holding other screens up to the webcam.”

  The post has since been removed from the Henry County Police Department’s Facebook page. 

  Priti Griffin, the founder of the Raise Me Up Foundation, is no stranger to the harmful content that is available to children on the internet and social media.

  She offers internet and social media safety classes through her nonprofit to parents to ensure that they are aware of what may pose threats to their children’s safety and wellbeing, including cyberbullying, and pornography, social media conduct, mobile applications, and more.

  With children shifting to online learning, Griffin states that parents should be aware of the content that their children have access to on their personal devices as well as the content that they share with their friends.

  “When we were growing up, when our parents took us to the playground, they usually sat there and they watched us…to make sure that we were safe and that we were not going to get hurt,” said Griffin.

  However, with the invention of the smartphones and social media, Griffin expressed that the ‘playground’ environment for children has rapidly expanded and changed.  

  “When smartphones and the internet came out, and the kids started playing on the ‘online playground,’ the parents kind of checked out,” said Griffin. “They’re not talking about the stranger that is on the other side of the screen as much.”

  “But there’s a lot more predators on the online playground than there ever were on the regular playground,” continued Griffin. “The online playground is so much more dangerous and yet parents are not there 24/7 to look to make sure that kids are not around dangerous people.”

  She offers five steps to parents to assist in understanding how to be more aware of their children’s conduct online and on social media, including educating yourself about the internet and social media, minimizing the opportunity for your children to be exposed to online dangers, establishing solid communication with your children, learning to identify the signs of online dangers, and the steps to take if you discover an online threat to your child’s wellbeing and safety.