Use social media, get expelled: Bengaluru schools to students

When Bengaluru city students returned to school on May 29 after their two-month summer vacations, they were greeted with an orientation session like no other. The kids were warned of the risks of using social media.

The development comes close on the heels of an Education Post news break on May 25 about class 9 students of Delhi Public School (DPS), Bangalore North creating AI-generated nude images of two classmates and posting the deepfakes on the school’s unofficial Instagram group chat with highly objectionable messages.

The news, picked up and followed by all top media houses in the country, led to the arrests of two 15-year-old students and one 18-year-old pre-university student – all three are currently locked up and awaiting trial. The next date of hearing will likely be next week.

Some schools have urged parents to give an assurance that their children are not active on social media sites, in particular Instagram.

Also Read: DPS Bangalore North suspends class 9 students over morphed nudes of classmates; arrests likely

“Instagram has been a big problem where children have their own groups to chat, bully teachers, and post derogatory comments about teachers. A recent incident where some children morphed a class 9 girl’s photograph for a nude photo and posted it on her school group on Instagram is the best example of how our children are misusing the platform,” the principal of a top Bengaluru school told a regional newspaper.

The principal said the school has issued a strict warning to the parents during orientation that their children will be expelled if they are found using Instagram.

Some schools invited cybercrime experts and officials from the police department to the orientation sessions to provide lectures on the downside of using social media at an early age.

“…We have delivered lectures by cybercrime experts about the consequences of misusing social media. Even parents say they are helpless in controlling their teenage children, and so we have directed our counsellors to create awareness among them by quoting the recent incident and what happened after that, and how the culprits were caught,” Bhuvaneshwari J, principal and director of Presidency School, Bangalore South, was quoted as saying.

Also Read: Top Bengaluru school in eye of storm as AI-generated nude pics of class 9 students emerge online

Avanthi Reddy, Academic Head of the Science Division at Sadhana PU College in Uttarahali, said the blame lies with the parents. “There should be control and a close watch by parents on what their children are posting on Instagram, whom they are friends with, their chat history, and chatting subjects,” she told the paper.

Gayethri Devi, principal of the Little Flower Public School, seconded Reddy. “In a class of 40, 20 may have been open to social media and the other 20 may be naïve, so we need to be very sensitive in our approach,” she said, while advising parents to get their wards a basic mobile phone for emergency purposes instead of a smartphone.

Meanwhile, the Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools of Karnataka has issued an advisory, urging parents to keep a “robust tab” on their children’s social media activities.

Also Read: IIRF (10+2) Schools Ranking 2024

“Children are increasingly using social media through fake accounts, without the knowledge of their parents. They use it for activities ranging from building relationships to taking revenge,” the association’s secretary D Shashi Kumar said, adding that parents need to encourage their kids to spend more time on outdoor activities than staying glued to their smartphones.