Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be enraged on behalf of the mother?

142 replies

HerVagesty · 06/10/2014 16:41

Fail [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782126/Schoolgirl-15-humiliated-teacher-showed-picture-bikini-100-fellow-pupils-demonstrate-dangers-social-networks.html]]

I mean, kids these days need to be taught that they are even less "invisible" than we thought we were due to social media, but really? Hmm

OP posts:
cakedcrusader · 06/10/2014 16:44

The link doesn't work for me.

cherrybombxo · 06/10/2014 16:46

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782126/Schoolgirl-15-humiliated-teacher-showed-picture-bikini-100-fellow-pupils-demonstrate-dangers-social-networks.html

The "L" at the end of the address hadn't been included in the link.

cherrybombxo · 06/10/2014 16:48

Hmm, it is horrible and I can see why the mum is angry and why the girl is upset... but I assume she put it on Facebook? Even if someone else posted it, it must have been tagged with her name for the teacher to have found it simply by googling the girl's name? If she wasn't happy with the photo being public on a friend/family member's page, she should have asked them to remove it, or at least untag herself. I'm on the fence with this one.

CaptainAnkles · 06/10/2014 16:50

They shouldn't have done it, because obviously it's upset the girl. But if she's confident enough to put it up online, presumably a lot of her schoolmates are on her friends list, they would have seen it already. It gets the message across that anything you put online can be accessed by pretty much anybody, especially if your security or privacy settings aren't tight enough. They have just gone about it in a way that has singled out and embarrassed one person unfortunately.

ArabellaTarantella · 06/10/2014 16:54

They have just gone about it in a way that has singled out and embarrassed one person unfortunately

They showed lots of the pupils photos, but she was the one with shorts and a bikini top. The teacher was bringing home a very hard message, but I can't see how the pupil's mother can object to the school seeing it when millions of people could. It's no good locking the stable door after the horse has bolted......she should have made sure her daughter's security was stronger.

ADishBestEatenCold · 06/10/2014 17:00

Am totally shocked. Really angry on this child's behalf.

I notice that within their statement Plymouth City Council have said

"Sadly, there are people of all ages who know that they can use photographic images to bully, exploit or coerce others, and do so"

What Plymouth City Council don't go on to say is that 'sadly', in this instance, one of the people to use this young girl's image in a bullying and exploitative fashion was the young girl's teacher.

(IMO to show a blow-up image of a bikini clad teenager to 100 of that teenager's peer group, without the subjects permission, is rather bullying and exploitative behavior).

ADishBestEatenCold · 06/10/2014 17:03

"They showed lots of the pupils photos, but she was the one with shorts and a bikini top"

As I understood the article, ArabellaTarantella, they showed lots of other photographs, but cropped the heads, so they weren't identifiable.

ILovedYouYesterday · 06/10/2014 17:07

I think it's awful to single out one girl like this.

If they wanted to make the point, they could have shown the ones where the pupils were fully clothed and then put one on of a completely random person in a bikini and asked how the kids would feel if it was them and how it easily could have been if they have such pictures on their public profiles.

How mortified must she have felt when she realised it was her out of however many hundreds of them in the room. Having it online isn't the same as suddenly seeing a big blown up version of it in your assembly hall.

Poor girl.

indigo18 · 06/10/2014 17:08

Rubbish! She put the picture on Facebook without having proper security in place or else the teacher wouldn't have been able to find it so easily.
Pupils are warned over and over that this can happen.
Presumably many of the pupils who saw it in school will already have viewed it online and if she was so distraught by the thought of it being viewed, why put it in the public domain.
hope she has learned a lesson.

ADishBestEatenCold · 06/10/2014 17:11

"As I understood the article, ArabellaTarantella, they showed lots of other photographs, but cropped the heads, so they weren't identifiable"

Actually, no I was wrong and you were right ArabellaTarantella, except, we don't know whether the other people were bikini clad or otherwise, because it would seem they only showed other photographs from the neck up ... no others showing full bodies, bikini clad or otherwise.

So, yes, I still think they singled her out in an exploitative fashio ... they used her image for there needs ... to illustrate their point.

bloodyteenagers · 06/10/2014 17:13

It hammered home the point of an internet safety lesson. Be careful of what you put online. Be aware that unless you change your settings, anyone can access your images or other details. If the image wasn't to be taken by others, it either should have been put on in the first place, or settings changed.
The teacher probably assumed that it was a public image, viewable by anyone, so she wouldn't mind her peers seeing the picture. Even more so, if she had a quick look at friends to see most of her peers would have seen the image.

ADishBestEatenCold · 06/10/2014 17:14

"fashio ... they used her image for there needs ... to illustrate their point"

fashion ... they used her image for their needs ... to illustrate their point.

sorry ... can't spell or type today

AChickenCalledKorma · 06/10/2014 17:14

The mother says that the school got the photo from her daughter's Facebook profile - and that her daughter put it there. So basically, her daughter's security settings are so lax that strangers can get hold of bikini photos. If she didn't want anyone to see it, it shouldn't have been on Facebook.

None of us were at the assembly, so we don't really know how it was handled. But bluntly, it's a very good illustration of social networking issues and the child should probably be glad her lack of security has been pointed out before future employers start googling her.

ThinkIveBeenHacked · 06/10/2014 17:18

Whilst I agree that this girl.chose to display a photograph of herself in a bikini online, and that in order for the school to see it she mustnt have high security settings, she is a teenager and you know what, sometimes they are just a bit daft. She was daft to do it, but thats sort of what life is like at 15. We did stupid shit because we didnt know or expect the consequences.

Using her as an example is wrong imo.

LineRunner · 06/10/2014 17:19

Singling a girl out like this in a 100- strong assembly had the obvious intention of humiliating her, and it was unnecessary.

It was a piss poor decision.

She should have been spoken to privately.

afterthought · 06/10/2014 17:19

I'm in two minds over this. Presumably, if she put it on facebook, half the school will have seen it anyway. Any one of her friends could have shared the picture with their friends, who could have shared it with all their friends and so on.

I wouldn't have done what the teacher did - mainly because of the backlash. I am sure I have seen this done before though as an exercise on internet safety.

ADishBestEatenCold · 06/10/2014 17:20

"The teacher probably assumed that it was a public image, viewable by anyone, so she wouldn't mind her peers seeing the picture"

If the teacher cannot imagine that a young girl might feel there is a huge difference between putting her own picture on facebook and having her teacher enlarge the picture and showcase it at a special assembly, then in my opinion the teacher is displaying a remarkable lack of empathy and understanding.

indigo18 · 06/10/2014 17:22

Why would it be 'humiliating'? She wasn't naked. She liked the picture enough to have it on her profile. Teacher made a point, I don't see that she humiliated anyone.

afterthought · 06/10/2014 17:22

I guess they chose a bikini shot to make an impact. In the case I heard of before, they were just normal pictures and I don't think it really hammered it home as they just thought it was funny that teachers could see their pictures. However, they could have used a picture downloaded from the internet, chopped off the head and made out it was one of the students.

McBear · 06/10/2014 17:23

I can't believe some of you are basically blaming this girl.

Yes her security settings are lax but perhaps she thought she had done everything correctly. For example, my fb has the strongest settings I can see how to apply but I know a colleague looked at my profile and saw some images. I have no idea how to change this.

Just because she allowed some people to see this image DOES NOT mean she wanted it enlarged for all her peers to see.

Perhaps, as with most teens, she's extremely body conscience.

It's terrible this was done and it is in no way her fault! The teacher should have known better...

indigo18 · 06/10/2014 17:24

ADish the girl posted it on facebook for the world to see.

indigo18 · 06/10/2014 17:25

I am not BLAMING the girl. Fact is it was her picture, posted by her, for everyone to see.

indigo18 · 06/10/2014 17:26

It does illustrate that it's best to stay off Facebook...

5madthings · 06/10/2014 17:27

This was a crap thing for the school/teacher to have done.

Not surprised the parent has complained.

It's one thing to contact the parents or speak to the girl but to hold an assembly that essentially embarrassed/humiliated some of the pupils is not ok.

bloodyteenagers · 06/10/2014 17:30

But this point is, anyone could have accessed the picture and enlarged it. Anyone could have printed it and picture bombed the school with it. Her peers could have seen it at any time, even ones she isn't friends with.