This is a first-year module where I am teaching two guest lectures only this semester. In the second lecture, I gave the students a Mentimeter Wordcloud to see how much they remembered from the first one. The third-largest word ended up being a short phrase that I'd never heard about. I assumed it would be some kind of Internet or regional slang (I am a non-native English speaker, teaching in a region with a strong dialect and regularly encounter phrases I don't understand) entered as a prank. I just said, in a light tone, something like some words didn't seem relevant to the task (there were a couple others which were irrelevant and obviously a prank) and I was therefore not going to comment on them.
Back in the office, I checked the phrase online - turns out it is indeed recent Internet slang, which attempts to mimic the sound that someone would make when spitting on their partner's p*nis during oral sex.
I contacted the module convenor, my line manager and a couple of key L&T contacts about this immediately, they were supportive and confirmed that these kinds of behavioural issues are getting worse and the university is tightening up the behavioural policy and code of conduct.
I have had people playing pranks on Menti in the past, and really I think it's their prerogative as adults to not engage with course content if they don't want to (all is ask is that they aren't disruptive and that they don't expect me to spoon-fed them content they've chosen to miss). I hesitate between thinking this is such a prank gone wrong, from obviously immature individuals, and that me going to my line manager is overkill, and thinking that this is inacceptable in a university context and that everyone at university should have the right to teach and learn without being faced with gratuitous and uncalled for sexual content. Making sexual comments to others is also regarded as sexual harrassment by my university.
I am in the position that apart from being a contributor to this module I am also HoD. Initially I thought of issuing a very generic message to the whole department, reminding them of behavioural expectations and keeping it low key, but now I think that I need to address the issue directly and firmly, and making it clear to students that such behaviour is completely inappropriate and I am not minded to tolerate it in my department (obviously the culprits cannot really be punished or identified as Menti is anonymous).
What would you do?