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German schools were transferred to a distance teaching format to fight the coronavirus and reduce infection risk. As a result, children began to learn remotely from home and there have been some issues.
A fortnight ago, in several regions, elementary school children saw sexual images and scenes from pornographic films during classes.
In Mainburg, an eight-year-old child accidentally stumbled upon a photograph of a naked man during an online lesson. Furthermore, in Florstadt, an unidentified hacker showed a pornographic video to second-grade children. Third-grade students in Berlin watched porn for several minutes during a similar incident.
In this regard, the German Teachers' Association expressed concern that distance learning could lead to the spread of pornography amongst children and, as a result, cause them psychological damage.
According to the Bavarian Teachers' Association president, no matter how modern a child's upbringing is, showing this kind of content is shocking for children in protected school space. It presents a new danger for online teaching that requires immediate action.
The study revealed that the culprit was high school students who noticed that the teacher had left access to the online conference. Christian Schorr from the Department of Cybercrime announced that "If a teenager was able to enter an open chat so easily, then the temptation to play a joke and perform any prohibited action is powerful."
Christian Schorr conducted an investigation, during which he stated that exposing pornography to young children is a serious crime, and the authors of the incident should have known about it. When children encounter material of a sexual nature, it is a form of sexual abuse. According to Schorr, the criminals' identity was established using electronic journals and a cache of programs the educational platform uses to record lessons.
The teachers' association is now demanding that teaching platforms should be legally secure and use the latest encryption technologies in their work. According to Martin Leve of the Parents' Association, distance learning is incredibly important during a pandemic, as it provides natural contact between teachers and children.
Criminologist Thomas Rüdiger was also involved in the investigation of the case. He confirmed that the risk of pornography affecting young children did increase during the pandemic.
Many children first went online because of the lockdown and for remote learning. If you give them unrestricted access to all the content circulating on the web, they may be exposed to offensive content that can cause psychological harm.
