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School principal Antje Reinmuth-Kaut (left) with police officers Ralph Linker and Lorena Decher during the lecture on the dangers of social media. © Editor
Homberg (pm). An average of 224 minutes – according to the Hessian police, that’s how long every young person spends on the Internet every day. WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat – social media is used a lot and with pleasure. However, it is also often the case that the police are called into action. It’s about insults, the distribution of child pornography, slander and criminal photos.
Other reasons include coercion, calls for violence or incitement to hatred – the range of possible criminal offenses is large, two police officers said at an information event in the auditorium of the Ohmtalschule (OTS) in Homberg recently.
Chief Detective Lorena Decher and Police Chief Ralph Linker from the leadership group of the Vogelsberg Police Department came to the school auditorium at the invitation of the Pestalozzi School. They informed students, parents and teachers about media protection and the dangers of cybercrime, i.e. crimes involving computers and the Internet.
Message can become a crime
“We are recording a significant increase in the number of cases, and every second suspect is a teenager or a child,” warned Chief Detective Decher. With a video on the topic “Don’t use your cell phone as a weapon,” the young people were shown very clearly what a single nude photo, a quick screenshot and its illegal distribution on social media can result in: charges, prosecution, destroyed children’s souls, and so on further. Fines, hours of work, entries in the certificate of good conduct and even imprisonment are also possible in such cases.
“There are also many negative consequences such as mental illnesses, psychiatric stays, suicides and suicide attempts as well as serious social consequences for the families affected,” explained Police Chief Inspector Ralph Linker and appealed to the students: “Think about what you are sent and what you send!” Simply receiving and sending illegal content – even if it is with good intentions to your own parents or teachers – is punishable.
“We have decided to revise the protection concept against sexual violence as a topic for this school year,” explains Antje Reinmuth-Kaut, head of the Pestalozzi School, the idea behind the event. “We want to do this with the involvement of parents and students and not over their heads.” Violence and sexual violence were previously discussed in lessons and in parent council meetings.
The invitation to the police took place in this context and the lecture was reworked in the classes. In the second half of the year, “Hands Away from Julia” will also be invited as a theater, in cooperation with the primary school and the specialist office against sexual violence, said the headmistress.
Police offer prevention
The event for Ohmtal and Pestalozzi School took place as part of the Digital Native prevention program, a play on words between “digital native” and “digital naive”. This is an initiative of the East Hesse Police Headquarters in cooperation with the Fulda district and the Fulda district school authority. The program is aimed at children, young people and adolescents, their parents and their teachers and currently addresses sexual violence on the Internet, hate speech and cyberbullying.
The police say: The police are also involved as a prevention partner for schools in a variety of ways – including challenges in the digital world. However, teaching people how to use digitalization competently and safely is not the sole responsibility of the police.
Rather, it is a task for society as a whole in which everyone – students, teachers and parents – can take responsibility and recognize and minimize the potential dangers of everyday digital life.
Further information at hessen.de.
