Barrington school officials: Be aware of your child's online activity

Parent checks her son's Instagram, finds suspicious chat

Posted 6/30/16

A Barrington mom decided to contact police after checking her son's Instagram account on Tuesday, June 21.

The mother of the Hampden Meadows School student told police she was going through her …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Barrington school officials: Be aware of your child's online activity

Parent checks her son's Instagram, finds suspicious chat

Posted

A Barrington mom decided to contact police after checking her son's Instagram account on Tuesday, June 21.

The mother of the Hampden Meadows School student told police she was going through her son's phone when she found a conversation or "chat" taking place between her son and an older man from New York.

The woman told police she did not recognize the man's name and officers later ran a search to see if there was any information available on someone named "Deion Doctor." There wasn't.

The woman asked police to share the incident with school officials. Shortly after reporting the situation to police, officers shared the information with the school department and later that day an email was sent to all parents of Hampden Meadows School students — the email was titled "Summer Safety."

It stated, in part: "As summer approaches and your children may have more time interacting with devices, we would like to remind parents to be vigilant about monitoring digital use and social media.

"Know who your child is following on applications such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and know who are following them. If you notice any suspicious messages or unfamiliar contacts, talk to your child about them. If you feel there is a potential threat notify the authorities."

The message from the school department also included a link to commonsense media.org which provides independent reviews, age ratings and other information about all types of media. 

Hampden Meadows School is for students in grades four and five.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.