Is this police training action at DD(14) school really bizarre, bordering on inappropriate, or completely fine and normal?

[questionzzz]

This is kind of preying on my mind.
A local police officer made a fake instagram account impersonating a teen from a (different) local school, and sent "friends requests" to a bunch of students at the local high where DD goes. Some of them accepted, despite not knowing the person who had sent them the request- one of them being one of DD's friends.
So this officer saw what these schoolkids are posting on their (private) accounts. DD's friend posts a lot, including pics of herself in clothes showing cleavage. Apparently, according to DDfriend, the police officer subsequently approached her, told her that the pics were inappropriate- these pics were subsequently deleted from the account. This happened to several students (dunno if just girls targeted, or boys too) On Thursday (yesterday), the officer addressed the whole school, told them about this instagram experiment, how dangerous social media was, talked to them about sexting and sending nudes and the fact that it is illegal at their age, told them how a boy two years above than them, super smart with a great future etc, had showed nudes of his gf to other boys and was now in prison, his whole life ruined before it started, on the sex offender's registry.

The speech seemed to have backfired, because as far as I can tell, the kids seem to have more sympathy with the boy in the police officer's story?

Anyway- the speech wasn't that bad if heavy-handed, and I'm all on board for training about social media- , but the whole instagram experiment thing? I can't seem to wrap my head around it. It seems- over-zealous? Right now, it's become a bit of creepy joke with DD and her friends- I heard them going through their accounts "ooo that one would be banned FOR SUUURE"

what do you think?

And then there is cleavage

I have seen 14yr olds (on my daughter's accounts) sharing both. In fact my daughter took herself off fb and deleted lots of girls on insta due to this very issue. She has small accounts on insta, with friends only. Thankfully she is just like me, and has no desire for "number friends" on her SM.

*op, not bop.

Brilliant idea, wish they would do it here.

And Op what teens laugh and talk about to each other isnt necessarily their true opinion on what's happened. Most will be going along with the crowd trying to make a joke out of it but on their own it will have them worried that they need to be more careful

If the teens were talking about it after school then it's job done, it's had an impact and made them think about it. Most things go in one ear and out the other.

Total invasion of privacy, entrapment nearly. Violating -@ Missingstreetlife

Which they invited by adding "just anyone" to their profile. And he is such a "bent" copper that he was completely open about it with afterwards.

I find it bizarre that it took a police officer to point out to a 14yo that you don't post pics of cleavage on social media tbh. I mean where are her parents in all of this? Do they just not care? You are so naive if you think most parents care or check on this stuff. I check dd's phone etc regularly, but most don't. On here, checking your teens internet/phone is seen as a violation.

It seems creepy and I hope the officer explained to the school, beforehand, what he would be doing. - @Mxyzptlk
It was obviously done in consultation with the school, how else did he get the pupils names?

all the school kids I know, have something like 500+ friends on insta. It is a sign of popularity etc. DD is sad bc she "only" has 200ish. If this fake friend request had shown up for her, and it was already "friended" by a couple of her closer friends, she very well might have friended "him", assuming he was their friend - @questionzzz
Which is how people pull vulnerable kids in, relying on their sheep mentality and their need to be popular. You need to talk this over with her.

fear from sexual predators (who, from my non-expert understanding, are far more likely to operate in close circles of families and friends) Then you would be SO wrong. You need to educate yourself too, op. You obviously don't see anything wrong with your daughter having 200+ friends, some of which she doesn't even know.

You seem to think that this police officer has no right to "friend" these children in the interests of a what I expect was a public service stunt, but you have NO problem with your dd & her friends having 200+ / 500+ (respectively) "friends" on their SM. Any one of those friends could be grooming them, yet you feel 'queasy" about a POLICE OFFICER? Your priorities are wrong.

Personally think there are better ways to educate teens about the dangers- they are very sophisticated users of social media - @Bouledeneige
But not very savvy!

The police officer in question did so under an alias to prove a point and the objective of doing so worked.

A police officer did something at schools locally about 5 years ago. So Facebook - it was before Instgram was so big. An account was set up as though it was a teenager in a nearby school, then a month later there was an assembly with the results.
Various local teenagers had friended the fake account. (Which hasn't sent out friend requests, IIRC.)
Chillingly, an adult on the sex offenders register had also friended the account.
This had such a big impact on DD1, age 11, that she still doesn't have any social media.
Personally I think these experiments will be more
effective at a younger age, before children are already into social media.

But teenagers know that if they friend strangers, some of their 500+ followers will be strangers.

Like, they know their profiles are public.

"Anyone could be following you!" is surely not a shocking surprise to them?

They want "anybody" to follow them because they don't think it's odd the way previous generations would have. They see it as equivalent to a stranger seeing them walk down a public street. Because social media is public and part of life to them.

All of it is good except the telling the girl about pictures with her cleavage.
A cleavage is not a sexual organ and can be shown if wanted and it’s judgemental and inappropriate of him to say anything about that.
Otherwise it’s pretty genius.

They ended up feeling sorry for a boy showing his mates intimate pictures of his girlfriend, which she doubtfully knew about?????

Bizarre

Teenagers also think they know more than they really do. Their images are not just on their own accounts, but those of friends (taken at parties, or selfies etc). No matter what privacy setting you apply (and many keep changing to make things confusing), their friends accounts can lean information too.
All of that said, you can tell a young girl not to be flaunting cleavage online, but she just as easily do it when going out with friends. And then we are into the realms of 'why should a female have to adapt her dress code?'

My biggest worry with social media us that it's 24/7 and their is no escape from it. A child can't leave behind their school life when they get home.

All of it is good except the telling the girl about pictures with her cleavage.A cleavage is not a sexual organ and can be shown if wanted and it’s judgemental and inappropriate of him to say anything about

In principle I agree with this, however, the child in question was using the cleavage to show off and draw attention. In order to back up the idea that it is on to have a cleavage, surely it is important to get the message across to these girls that indeed it is not a sexual organ and is not there to show attract attention

Most teens don't care about strangers watching them on social media though. Any more than most posters here care about strangers watching them on the street.

I'm just surprised people think demonstrating to a teenager "your anonymous follower could be an adult!" is going to in any way surprise them. It isn't. They don't care.

Frankly I'm shocked they'd all have private profiles to begin with.

It's not just the predators that are a concern, it's bullies too. They can easily discover where you live, the friends and family you have, places you visit etc.
It's so insidious.

I get absolutely sick and tired of adults taking photos at parties to post online and mentioning names etc.

Not read all the replies, but sounds like a bloody fantastic idea to me.
Would have no problem with my 15 year olds class having that lesson, might make them think a bit!

Apparently, according to DDfriend, the police officer subsequently approached her, told her that the pics were inappropriate

So this bit of information comes to you from your 14 year old via another 14 year old. I would take it with a little pinch of salt as 14 year olds are know for sometimes exaggerating.

I think the problem here is that most of us who are now adults grew up without this, not to say that we don't understand it but that we don't feel the impact it has on the lives of young people.
Yes, OP, sexual abuse is more likely at the hands of family and close friends than randoms strangers but situations like this are exactly how young women find themselves in what they believe to be relationships with much older and abusive men.
They all friended this person without knowing who he was. He could have been anyone. He could have started to message her. He could have suggested that they meet up. This can and does happen to young girls all the time but people believe that stuff they post on Instagram is in some kind of walled garden.