Superintendents warn parents of lewd website

Students reportedly trading explicit photos

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It began May 18, as a notice to Catholic high school principals from the Rockville Centre Diocese, warning about a new website where students were sharing photos of naked female students “like baseball cards.” Notices to parents of public school students followed.

Oceanside Superintendent Phyllis Harrington posted a letter from the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents on the district’s website. The letter, written by council President Dr. Lorna Lewis, of the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District, and Superintendent Susan Schnebel, of the Islip School District, noted that the photo-sharing website has been “posting inappropriate photos targeting and identifying by name teens across Long Island.” It encouraged parents to talk to their children, monitor their use of the Internet and advise them of the dangers and possible criminal repercussions of posting, viewing or sharing the pictures. Those who believe their children appear in photos on the site, the letter added, should alert the police.

On May 19, Island Park Superintendent Rosmarie Bovino sent a letter to parents of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, telling them about the website. “We also make sure that students are supervised when using the Internet in school, and filters are always used to block inappropriate websites,” Bovino wrote. “Nevertheless, as a follow-up to the Internet Safety and Sexting assembly programs that we held this year in school, [Pupil Personnel Director Laurie] Scimeca, [Principal Vincent] Randazzo, our psychologist, guidance counselor and social worker met with our older middle school students today to remind them of the associated risks and dangers of posting photos or providing self identifying information.”

Bovino added that parents should remind children that sharing inappropriate photos in any manner is considered distribution of pornography, even if they use an app on which the photo disappears. She, too, encouraged parents to notify police if their child receives an inappropriate photo.

Mary McMahon, director of the Rockville Centre Diocese’s Office for Protection of Children/Young People, sent a letter to the principals of all of the Catholic high schools on Long Island, instructing them to make guidance counselors and principals aware of the site and the dangers to both male and female students.

“It’s an ongoing effort by the diocese to step up the effort to make parents aware of these situations that could potentially cause harm to their children,” said Sean Dolan, head of communications for the diocese.

Dolan added that the diocese learned about the website through an anonymous letter from a parent of a female student. “Normally, anonymous letters aren’t responded to,” he said. “But the threat was deemed necessary enough to make principals aware of.”

On the site, boys ask for explicit photos of girls from specific schools. Some also ask for pictures of specific girls, offering to trade other pictures for them.

“Unfortunately, teens do not realize the dangers of the Internet,” McMahon’s letter reads. “The lure of popularity and peer approval outweighs the inherent dangers of sites such as the one above. Young girls are cooperating with the request to submit pictures and are, unknowingly, participating in their own victimization.”

Island Park Library Director Jessica Koenig said the facility does not have filters on its computers. “We are looking at ways we can filter computer use in the future,” she said. “We do try to keep an eye on what young people are doing. They have to have permission to use the computers from their parents, and our staff does watch what they’re doing. In addition, our computers are right out in the open, and anyone can see what they’re being used for, so if someone were doing something wrong, we would see it.”

Tony Iovino, community services supervisor for the Oceanside Library, said there are no filters on its computers, either. “We have a children’s room for very young students, third- through sixth-graders,” Iovino said. “We do not have any teens or adults in there. We monitor what the children do, and the screens are all visible to our staff. All of our computers and printers are in public view. You have to have a library card to check out a computer, and all the machines are in eye-line sight of our staff.”