When using digital technology:

1. 1. Students will be responsible for all their actions.

   2. Students will be respectful towards other students, staff, and the school.

   3. Students will self-regulate their language and comments refraining from any wording that could be considered harassing, demeaning, or derogatory.

   4. Students, while at school, will limit their technology use to educational purposes only.

   5. Students will keep all cyber activity to productive academic work and refrain from engaging in illegal or inappropriate conduct (i.e. plagiarism, hacking, illegal downloads, sexting, pornography).

Students and Central Catholic are responsible for maintaining a positive educational atmosphere. The following activities can significantly disrupt the academic setting, possibly creating a hostile environment for staff and students. The school will investigate, intervene, discipline, and educate all students involved.

Sexting includes but is not limited to the following:

1. Soliciting pictures of a sexual nature.

2. Sending pictures of a sexual nature.

3. Copying or photographing pictures of a sexual nature.

4. Transmitting, forwarding, posting pictures of a sexual nature.

5. Saving or storing pictures of a sexual nature.

Inappropriate messages and postings include but are not limited to the following:

1. Posting pictures or videos of another student or staff member without their permission.

2. Posting inappropriate comments regarding another student or staff member.

3. Posting inappropriate comments regarding Central Catholic.

4. Creating websites or Instagram pages using the Central Catholic name or logo.

5. Sending texts, Instagram posts, snapchats, email, or any other form of electronic communication that is of a threatening, harassing, or derogatory nature.

6. Any other digital activity that Central Catholic deems inappropriate.

Definitions:

1. Sextortion: This can start on any site, app, messaging platform, or game where people meet and communicate. In some cases, the first contact with the criminal will be a threat. The person may claim to already have a revealing picture or video of a child that will be shared if the victim does not send more pictures. More often, however, this crime starts when young people believe they are communicating with someone their own age who is interested in a relationship or with someone who is offering something of value. 

After the criminals have one or more videos or pictures, they threaten to publish that content, or they threaten violence to get the victim to produce more images. The shame, fear, and confusion children feel when they are caught in this cycle often prevents them from asking for help or reporting the abuse.

2. Financial Sextortion: In these cases, the offender receives sexually explicit material from the child and then threatens to release the compromising material unless the victim sends money and/or gift cards. The amount requested varies, and the offender often releases the victim’s sexually explicit material regardless of whether or not they receive payment. This increasing threat has resulted in an alarming number of deaths by suicide.

What to do:

Unfortunately, sextortion happens to our students and their families. It is often a traumatic experience for our students. These online crimes are becoming more and more prevalent.  The perpetrators of these crimes are often rings operating from overseas locations. The FBI does work on child exploitation cases, but due to limited resources, tends to focus on the organized fraud rings.

When these incidents are more local, with kids or young adults victimizing others known to them, the local police are generally the appropriate agency. Reporting to the school administration can be helpful.

If your case was initiated online with someone unknown to you, file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov. The FBI collates information from hundreds of thousands of complaints on this website to target international organized crime rings conducting frauds and exploitations. It is recommended to report to the local field office to file a complaint if there were additional factors, such as hands-on abuse or interstate travel for a direct meeting.

If the incident was initiated by someone you know, please contact the local police in your county of residence. Police Bureaus have talented investigators who care, but they are often overloaded and the case may move slowly.

If no active investigation is ongoing, it is recommended to change the cell number, email, and social media accounts for two reasons. One is for security to reduce the likelihood of recontact and re-victimization. The other is just to restart engagement with all these tools with a clean slate and a new awareness of the dangers that are out there and how to avoid them. Starting new accounts can help break with the past and start new habits.

We strongly recommend you report this incident to the social media companies whose sites were involved. Meta has investigative teams working to kick crime groups off the platform.