A
female
age
51-59,
*ariaChilternsLFC
writes:My 19-year-old son applied for a job this week, I wished him good luck.He did OK in the interview until the interviewer said they would not be able to hire him due to a background check.They said they'd found pictures of him "in the raw" on a website hosted by his old high school, from 3 years ago. The people said it was almost "semi-pornographic".My son feels embarrassed about it, he told me he was pressurised into doing it. He said no matter how often he tried to get it removed from the high school website's student subdomains, they wouldn't remove it - it's an interesting historical record, they told him.I'm furious, yes, what my son did was a juvenile prank, and the pupils doing it and my son didn't realize the consequences, but I'm more furious with the school. I didn't know, but I accept what my son did was juvenilia, and he's grown up a lot now.His dad just finds the whole thing funny - saying "Boys will be boys".What should we do about this and how can we help my son get employment, he's feeling very depressed about this at the moment.
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male
reader, rcn  +, writes (28 September 2009):
 I would set up a hearing, since he was a minor, and get an order of the court to have it removed. I don't know if your country has a slander type laws, where the actions or inactions cause harm to way of life or potential to create way of life, but if so, you might have a suite for their refusal to remove the pictures.
A
female
reader, Rose_red_09 +, writes (27 September 2009):
Yep, get a lawyer or go to the citizens advice bureau. I just can't believe that these piccies could have the potential to destroy a young mans future. I understand if the prospective employers had done a CRB check and found something but your son really has done nothing wrong.I really hope that you can get it sorted - the best of luck to you and your son.
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A
reader, anonymous, writes (27 September 2009): Look, British law can't be THAT different, go meet with an attorney, show them the site, explain the situaltion and have them advise you as to steps they can take in an affort to pressure the school to take action.
You may also want to get a letter from the potetianl employer so that you can show the damage this is cuasing (and to make sure that your son is telling you the whole truth).
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A
female
reader, MariaChilternsLFC +, writes (27 September 2009):
MariaChilternsLFC is verified as being by the original poster of the questionMy son has NO criminal convictions, for the record.
No matter how many times he tried contacting the school, they said they don't delete former students' logins or sites, they're kept for posterity.
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A
female
reader, Rose_red_09 +, writes (27 September 2009):
Sorry - I am a little confused. So your son does not have a criminal record whatsoever but the prospective employers just did search on an search engine and came across these pictures???
But the fact is that they maybe naughty piccies but he has a clean rap sheet - is this correct???
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A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (27 September 2009): This is horrible i can't believe the school actually thinks that is an acceptable thing to leave up. They should be focusing on setting a better example for future students and they should take it down. My suggestion would be to find an attorney and see if there is anything they can do about it. This is something that needs to be taken care of because your son is very young and this could stick with him for life if it's not taken care of now.
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A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (27 September 2009): (Hi there, I wrote your first reply, just giving you my personal feedback.)
"they're a nice historical record of their former alumni, according to them."
So they gave websites to kids through an IT class, and one of them used it to make a porn-site with pictures of a 16 year old boy in a shower? This is a nice historical record?
That has to be illegal. This sounds like child pornography to me.
I would definitely call the superintendent of the school district and make this into a very big deal.
Your son was just a child, and people make mistakes, he now needs to man-up to what he did three years ago, and stick up for himself here.
Your son as well as you and your husband need to be a little bit more pro-active.
Call the police station and explain the story, get a lawyer, talk to the head of the school district,
REPORT THE WEBSITE TO HTTP://WWW.ASACP.ORG OR HTT://WWW.REPORTCHILDPORN.COM
These sites will block the IP addresses of the site to everyone. There are a million things that you should be doing about this, these are just a few options.
It will be taken down if you take the proper steps in the right direction.
:)
Good luck!
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A
female
reader, MariaChilternsLFC +, writes (27 September 2009):
MariaChilternsLFC is verified as being by the original poster of the questionAs for why a school would have pictures of a student "in the raw", it was a student-created website, all students at my son's old high school got free webhosting as part of their IT classes.The site in question was set up by some former friends of his, all of whom were aged 16 at the time, and the photos were taken by his friends (about the same age). He was 16 at the time. It was NOT set up by my son, but someone else in his class.According to the site, there were photos of him posing in the school gym in his underwear, in the school gym showers nude, and other rather "sexy" (as the site dubbed them) photos. The site looked like a sex site, or at least a rip-off of one.Of course being British, we have different laws about such things, but even I'm not aware of it.My son complained to his old high school, but they insisted they won't delete former students' sites - they're a nice historical record of their former alumni, according to them.He feels very depressed about the whole thing, and told me he was pressured into it, because they were giving him money to do it, and he felt he needed the money at the time.My son often has flashbacks about the incident in high school, in April 2006 (3 years ago from now, when they were taken!).Me and my husband are just not sure where to go next from here.
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A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (27 September 2009): why would a high school have a picture of a student "in the raw?" that sounds highly innappropraite to me. I think that you should threaten legal action against the school unless it is taken down. If he is getting denied a job because of this, then it needs to be deleted.
How old was he when the picture was taken? In the states, it is illegal to post pictures of children on the internet under 18, (ESPECIALLY illicit photos) without the parent's permission. You can mention this to them, to add more to the threat of legalities.
Good luck, sounds like your son is in a real embarrassing predicament. I would be completely pissed. You have to get that picture off.
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