It was reported in our local paper recently that a 19 year old male is facing child sex charges over  offences that occurred several years ago. He met a 14 year old girl online, persuaded her to send him sexually explicit photos of herself, then used them to blackmail her. He told her that he would release the photos unless she met him. She finally agreed to meet him and he sexually abused her. Your teachers and parents aren't paranoid freaks (at least not all the time). This does happen sometimes. There are several lessons we can learn from this unfortunate situation:

1. It's safest not to send explicit photos of yourself to anyone, especially people you have never met;
2. You do not know who you're talking to online - it could be a 50 year old creep;
3. It's not safe to meet up with someone you've met online, especially if you go alone.