School Community Police Officer Mr. Matt McFlyn spoke to young men in Year 11 today about aspects of the Harmful Digital Communications Act, in particular about the possession and distribution of inappropriate digital images. The message from Mr. McFlynn was very clear;
- If you have a revealing image of someone under 16 on your phone, you are in possession of child pornography, even if that person consented to you having the image. If you then distribute that image you are guilty of distributing child pornography, regardless of your age.
- If you have a revealing image on your phone of someone 16 or over and you do not have their consent to have that image, you can be prosecuted under the harmful digital communication act. You cannot distribute that image unless you have that persons consent.
- If you receive an inappropriate image from someone, you have to make an immediate decision to delete that image from your device and ask the person not to send you other images, or remove yourself from that 'chat'.
The consequences are severe and long lasting for anyone in breach of the Harmful Digital Communications Act. Thank you to Mr McFlynn for his time this morning. He will be making further presentations in term three regarding cyberbullying.
