WhatsApp

School kids in the Netherlands share quite shocking images on their WhatsApp groups, RTL Nieuws found by gaining access to dozens of these groups. The researchers found child pornography, revenge porn, videos of ISIS decapitations, racist- and anti-Semitic images, and Nazi propaganda commonly shared on these groups. 

The broadcaster gained access to dozens of these groups, containing children between the ages of 12 and 16. The groups often have hundreds of members, sharing thousands of messages every day. 

University students can easily purchase files online that contain hundreds of exam questions and answers. These files are intended for lecturers only, but are easy to buy on apps, Facebook groups and websites like Stuvia, AD reports based on its own research.

Teenagers in the Netherlands are turning their backs on Facebook in favor of other social media platforms, Instagram and Snapchat in particular, according to the National Social Media Study 2018 by Newcom Research. Now only 43 percent of Dutch between the ages of 15 and 19 years use Facebook on a daily basis, compared to 68 percent in 2016, Marketingfacts.nl reports.

One in 15 Dutch teens (6.4 percent) sent a sexual photo to someone else on social media at least once, according to a survey by Bureau Jeugd & Media among a thousand kids aged between 12 and 17 years, NOS reports.

Sexting, sharing sexually explicit photos via social media, is especially popular among 16 and 17 year olds, the survey found. In this age group 14.5 percent have sent a sexual photo at least once. 40 percent said that they've received requests for naked photos of themes elves. Teens send these photos to their friends, but often also to people they only know online.

A Dutch man arrested in Germany on the suspicion that he raped an asylum seeker in the shelter that he runs, has been released. A WhatsApp chat conversation suggests that the man and woman had a consensual and "intimate love relationship", a court in Arnsberg decided, ANP reports.

The charge against the man, Paul van M., was filed by a 22-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who lived in the shelter he runs in Germany. She told the authorities that she had been raped at least four times, became pregnant and had an abortion.

Minister Edith Schippers of Public Health, head of intelligence service AIVD Rob Bertholee and chat-app WhatsApp are the three nominees for this year's Big Brother Awards. The Big Brother Award is annually awarded to the biggest privacy violator of the year by Bits of Freedom, NU.nl reports.

The Netherlands' Public Prosecutor and intelligence service AIVD are having more and more trouble with message encryption on messaging services like WhatsApp, prosecutor Martijn Egberts said to broadcaster NOS. The encryption means that crime fighters face difficult challenges when they want to read a suspect's communication.

The popularity of social media is still growing in the Netherlands, though Dutch users are making less and less use of Twitter. Young people in particular are using Twitter less, instead opting for Snap Chat and Instagram. Both these platform showed a big increase in Dutch users this year, according to an annual report by research form Newcom.

Seventeen percent of teenagers in the Netherlands think that they are addicted to social media. Almost half of the teens between the ages of 12 and 18 years indicate that social media has a negative effect on their concentration, sleep and school performance.

During an erotic texting session with his girlfriend, a teacher at the St. Ursula School in Horn, Limburg, accidentally send a picture of his penis to a group of students in one of his classes. An investigation made by the Foundation for Education in Middle-Limburg (SOML) determined that it was "a very stupid mistake," and that the sexting incident was done without malicious intent.

One in five Dutch smartphone users make calls using message apps like Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Five percent often call from so-called instant messaging apps and another 16 percent do so every now and then.