A Texas elementary online class got "Zoom bombed" with porn for one minute. The school's principal sent a message to the families of the students who were in that class.
A 4th grade virtual class in Leander, Texas, was having online lessons when suddenly salacious videos interrupted the lecture. On September 10, Thursday, Shelley Roberts, principal of River Edge Elementary, sent a message to the students' families, as reported by CBSAustin.com.
The person used a student's name
The teacher admitted that they let that person, who used a student's name, into the class. The person displayed inappropriate sexual content for about one minute before the teacher noticed it. Immediately after getting alerted, the teacher ended the meeting.
The educator said that the staff notified law enforcement about the incident, which has prompted an investigation. The teacher also said that they are in contact with the affected families. Once the investigation is completed, they will follow the district's protocols.
Although teachers are the only ones who could allow who could join the Zoom meeting, they could only see the user name. They could not see a video of the people who are trying to enter the room.
Videos of users could not be seen
Since the email address is not seen when joining a meeting, any Zoom user could write any name. Thus, if a teacher sees people in the "waiting room" that has the same name as her students, she would likely admit that person's permission.
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No one is sure how that person was able to obtain the name of the 4th grader. It could be a naughty older sibling or someone who knows the student that signed on to carry out the harmful prank.
A therapist in the Austin area told "Working Mother" the effects of the "Zoom bombing" meeting to students. The specialist said that after viewing the "hardcore porn," the students were already showing signs of trauma. Local mental-health professionals are helping to assist the kids who have been traumatized.
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It just shows that the video conferencing tools that schools use to teach kids have security flaws. Even password-protected rooms are not proof that your children are safe. The school stated that they can't let the teachers avoid such an untoward incident.
Since the teacher could not view the videos of all the students at once, it would be easy to have missed a video like that. No one is sure if the whole class has seen the harmful video. Schools need to do more to protect their students from seeing adult content while they are learning at home.
