Obscene photos pop-up on tablets given for attendance

Several government schools in Chhattisgarh have complained that obscene pictures pop up on the screens of computer tablets provided for recording bio-metric attendance of teachers and students.

Authorities are now taking steps to solve the problem, said a government official.

Teachers, in particular from schools in Durg, Surguja and Bastar districts, have complained that the tablets given for recording attendance and update information related to school activities show obscene pictures on the screen.

"The tablets come with an Internet connection. So prima facie it seems that somebody while watching or downloading some application, might have clicked on some spam message with obscene pictures," said Nilesh Soni, project manager at the state IT department.

Spam and free advertisements appear sometimes when free apps are downloaded, and when such advertisements are clicked, unwanted content pops up, he said.

Since September last year, around 51,000 tablets have been distributed to government schools, Soni said.

Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) is the implementing agency for the project, and it is looking into the issue, he said.

IT experts are visiting the schools to fix the problem, Soni said.

In some districts such as Balodabazar, the education department has issued orders not to use the devices till the problem is solved.

However, the biometric attendance system is an offline facility and teachers can use it without switching on the Internet connection, Soni said.

To ascertain the root cause of the problem, IT experts from Chennai have been called, he said.

After fixing the issue, open access to online applications which are not for the use of the education department will be restricted on these tablets, he said.