At first blush it's easy dismiss high school pranks among the grad class as "kids being kids."
But the 'pranks' described in a letter to the North Vancouver school district this week as being at the centre of grad contest are anything but benign.
To be fair, it's not clear yet if those contests are real or imaginary.
Suffice to say, however, that a number of the dares are repugnant, exploitive or illegal.
In one of the most disturbing contests, participants are urged to make sex tapes with underage teens and hand over video footage to others.
That amounts to criminal activity of producing and distributing child pornography.
It was less than two years ago when a 16-year old boy was charged after allegedly circulating photos of a sexual assault at a Maple Ridge rave. In that case, the victim was re-victimized countless times as the footage was passed along.
We hope such "contests" aren't really taking place.
Even in cases of pranks that are merely silly, teens should remember that creating a digital record is never a good idea.
Once recorded and inevitably forwarded, shared and posted online, that video is there for good. Unlike a court of law, the Internet doesn't offer special protection for teens. As last year's hockey rioters discovered, a record of bad behaviour can and does follow them out into the world.
Most teens still know right from wrong. But they also need to know that what feels fun and harmless sometimes isn't - and can be difficult to undo.
