Little would have the minor girl thought that she would be in deep trouble when she shared some of her intimate photographs with her boyfriend. The high-end model mobile phone came handy for her to photograph herself and send it using a multi-media application.
The boyfriend, who she thought, was in love with her, turned a villain as he forwarded those photographs to four of his friends.
The girl realised the danger only when the boy, an engineering student, started threatening her with the photographs.
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Pushed to a corner, the girl, studying in class 12, narrated her plight to her parents. After lot of discussion with their friends and relatives, the father approached Superintendent of Police, Madurai Rural, V. Balakrishnan.
“It was a very delicate situation for the parents and the girl and for the police to handle. When we brought the students, their mobile phones proved the complaint to be true. The boys, all belonging to upper middle class had expensive mobile phones, and had the photographs of the girl along with many other obscene pictures,” Mr. Balakrishnan said. The parents of all the boys, one studying 12 standard, two in engineering colleges and two others in arts colleges, were also called. The parents were dumb-founded when they knew the kind of activity their wards were into.
“It looks like the girl did not have much exposure to the outside world and sent those photographs without realising the boy’s real intention,” the SP said.
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The SP found fault with the parents for the incident. “Without realising what is in store in such high-end mobile phones, the parents have given their wards such gadgets. The parents who take time to pamper their children do not pay adequate attention to the activities of their wards,” Mr. Balakrishnan said.
Though he was not for a total ban on mobile phones for children, the SP said that the parents should get for the children basic models and not costly phones with multi-media facilities which might ruin them. Otherwise, they should keep a close tab on the children’s activities.
The repercussions of such activities could lead to undesirable ends, he warned the parents.