The education secretary of Colombian capital Bogota says that soap operas and Facebook are contributing to the increasing level of violence in the capital’s high schools.
According to Education Secretary Carlos Jose Herrera, students are inspired to acts of violence by recent Colombian telenovelas such as “Rosario Tijeras,” about a female hitman, and “El Capo” about drug traffickers.
Social networking sites like Facebook are widely used to threaten and intimidate students with violence. These virtual threats increasingly are being carried out, causing violence in schools to increase, the government official told newspaper El Espectador.
Herrera also warns about the influence of drug consumption and trafficking in educational facilities.
According to the Bogota city official he is working on several programs to decrease the violence in the capital’s high school.
Facebook threats in Colombia received international press after at least two teenagers in the southern Putumayo department were murdered following the appearance of a death list on the social networking site.