Online dangers, digital myths, and students’ online presence were the topics of discussion during Friday’s Redhawk Rant in the advisory period, with advice and tips given to students by counselor Lindsay Pfiffner and school resource officer Glen Hubbard.

“The myths are those photos, once the app deletes the photo, that the pictures are gone, or the text messages are gone, or the emails are gone; that is not totally true,” Hubbard said. “There’s no way to guarantee that’s going to happen once it leaves your device. Once it goes out on the internet, it could be anywhere forever. There’s plenty of programs and things that law enforcement and the federal government uses that can retrieve that information off those drives, or subpoena the information from the companies itself.”

With many students on campus applying for college, the counselor team decided a conversation with students regarding their online presence was needed.

“It’s something that we see with increasing frequency, issues as they relate to online presence among students both for college admissions purposes as well as for safety purposes,” Pfiffner said. “As a team, we talked about it, and it felt like it’s a god time to just share with students as a reminder in the spring.”

The majority of cases that occur on campus deal with things that may appear casual and unproblematic, but in reality have many consequences.

“The stuff that happens frequently at the school or any other places is people just screenshot stuff and then just repost it in other locations,” Hubbard said. “That’s the biggest threat as far as child pornography and sexting, things like that. People screenshot that stuff and, 15 years from now, your naked picture shows up to a potential employer or boyfriend or husband.”

As technology continues to increase and become more accessible, many teenagers are more susceptible to partaking in these activities in their personal lives.

“I think sharing that stuff on the internet is not a good idea because we’re too young for that and honestly, people our age can’t really own up to their own actions,” senior Tay Nguyen said. “Students can be careless and inexperienced; this is probably their first relationships and they’ll probably dive into it trying to throw out as much of themselves as possible, so that’s where they usually leak into adult life where that sexting happens.”

The consequences students face vary from case to case and can leave an impact on students’ lives for a significant period of time.

“Under 18, you’re still going to be charged with possession of child porn or promotion of obscene material,” Hubbard said. “There’s different levels depending on what it is; if you had knowledge that that stuff was on your phone, or you requested that information, technically you can be arrested for it, you’d be on probation for several years, you’d face fines and classes and things like that. It’s going to cost you some money to take care of that problem.”

For students over the age of 18, the consequences are even more grave and detrimental, and can leave a trail behind them about their past actions.

“The 18 year olds, they’re facing serious prison time if it’s proven that they are responsible for this material, and it’s even worse if it has happened more than once; the punishment phases go up. They’d be charged with, I believe, a second degree felony- up to 20 years in jail,” Hubbard said. “Parents do get involved in a lot of this stuff because they’re the ones that find it, when you’re a minor, they become the complainant because they’re representing their child. You may have shared pictures with your girlfriend or your friends not thinking anything of it, but their parents are upset about it, then they can follow through with a criminal charge or request a report be taken and see where that investigation goes.”

In order to prevent any unsafe instances, Pfiffner urges that students stay mindful with their presence online.

“Think before you post remembering that nothing disappears,” Pfiffner said. “It is out there once it is out there, so just be mindful of what you present; is anything you post the kind of thing you’d be comfortable with your grandmother seeing, your employer seeing, or a college administrator seeing.”