“The Shirley Boys’ High School community and whānau were emailed on Monday evening outlining what had happened and providing advice on what students should be doing,” Grocott said.
“The key message was that students should not be viewing or sharing the video.”
Grocott also said information had been given to students on what to do if they had the video, and to teachers if any additional situations arise.
The video was sent without permission to a number of people, including Avonside students and staff, according to Catherine Law, the principal of Avonside Girls’ High School, in an email to parents.
“This has caused considerable distress and harm to individual students, and the school,” Law said.
“There is potential that privacy has been breached, and it is important that our young people understand that sharing a video without a person’s knowledge or consent is an offence.
“In the meantime, please encourage your young person to not view or share the video.”
A parent of a student AGHS, who wished to stay anonymous, called the video “deliberate and designed to shame”.
“It’s incredibly cruel,” the parent said. “I imagine this will be very difficult for the school to manage, given the behaviour of all of the boys was inappropriate on school grounds, regardless of sexuality.
“[I understand] the video has been shared far and wide over several days”
The parent said they were “devastated” for the two students involved and hoped they were being well supported.
At the end of the email from Law was information on “Airdrop”, a feature on Apple devices that allows people to send media to another device via Bluetooth.
“If settings for it are not managed correctly, it can mean that an iPhone owner receives digital files that they did not mean to receive,” the email read.
Police, Netsafe and the Ministry of Education had been notified, Law said.
Ministry of Education Leader for the South Nancy Bell told the Herald they are “aware of the incident and the schools know we are available if needed”.
A Netsafe spokesperson said they were unable to speak about any cases that we might be involved in due to privacy concerns.
However, Chief online safety officer of NetSafe Sean Lyons said it is “devastating for all those involved”.
“I think it’s important that people realise that even if people made these things intentionally, even shared them intentionally with an individual, it was never people’s intention to have these things released and broadly viewed so that the impact is huge,” Lyons said.
Lyons said the best thing to do if you are involved in a situation like this is to act quickly.
Firstly Lyons said to contact the person doing the sharing and to also contact the organisations or the platform where the images or video are being shared.
“So I know it can feel daunting for individuals when they think it’s out there and it’s limitless in its spread and there’s nothing I can do,” Lyons said.
“But the quicker that they can act to get that content removed, the lesser the impact will be or the reduction in the spread is achieved by reporting that content and having it removed as quickly as possible.”
He acknowledged instances like this will be distressing for those involved, so he encouraged people to reach out to organisations like Youthline. Netsafe can also assist with the steps to get the content taken down and resources for the physiological impacts.
Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.
