A Lengthy Seashore pupil was arrested on suspicion of collaborating in a nationwide social media problem that encourages college students to jam lead or metallic into the ports of their Chromebook laptop computer computer systems.
The “Chromebook problem” is a viral TikTok pattern the place college students quick circuit their school-issued Chromebook computer systems, inflicting sparks, smoke and, in some circumstances, a hearth.
Movies on TikTok present college students jamming paperclips, pencils or the lead from mechanical pencils into USB ports.
On Thursday a 13-year-old pupil was arrested in reference to an arson incident that occurred inside a classroom at Perry Lindsey Academy, in accordance with the Lengthy Seashore Police Division.
No accidents have been reported.
The coed inserted a overseas object right into a battery charging port, damaging a Chromebook, in accordance with the Lengthy Seashore Unified College District.
The college district declined to say if the coed could be held chargeable for the injury to the pc.
This isn’t the primary time a pupil has been disciplined in reference to damaging a Chromebook for the sake of this social media problem, however the district didn’t specify what number of different instances it had occurred.
The district is urging dad and mom and caregivers to talk with their college students in regards to the risks of collaborating in social media challenges.
“Inserting objects into charging ports is unsafe and may result in vital disciplinary motion and authorized penalties,” the district mentioned in a press release. “We ask households to proceed reinforcing accountable digital conduct at residence and to remind college students: When you see one thing, say one thing.”
In a Northern California center faculty, a pupil participated within the problem by making her Chromebook smoke. The instructor discharged a hearth extinguisher on the smoking laptop and evacuated the classroom.
Incidents of smoking Chromebooks have been reported by faculty districts in Connecticut, Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.
In Connecticut, the superintendent of Newington Public Colleges, Maureen Brummet, mentioned Chromebooks are costly and are going up in worth, “so when a pupil does deliberately destroy a Chromebook, it’s their duty to switch it,” NBC reported.
An area hearth marshal, who responded to a college in Connecticut that was crammed with smoke from a broken Chromebook, advised NBC, the batteries within the computer systems produce a poisonous smoke once they catch hearth.
Movies of the problem have been beforehand discovered on TikTok by looking #ChromebookChallenge, however that tag has been taken down by the app. As a substitute, TikTok customers will discover the title “Your security issues” and a message that reads: “Some on-line challenges will be harmful, disturbing and even fabricated.”
Customers are invited to click on on a “view assets button” to assist them determine whether or not a problem seen on the app is dangerous.
Harmful social media challenges have been occurring for years, together with the 2016 “Cinnamon Problem” — inhaling a spoonful of cinnamon — or the 2018 “Tide Pod Problem,” which inspired social media customers to swallow soap-filled laundry pods for likes and follows.
