ASHLAND, Ky. — Teenagers nationwide are never alone when armed with weapons of mass communication, and city officials in Kentucky are on a mission to obliterate danger locally before it rises.

The youth of America, whether barricaded inside their bedrooms or seated in a classroom, is a push notification away from contact at nearly every waking second. Social networking apps can serve as a beacon for curious adolescents, but the same power can flip and spark devastation if wielded with reckless disregard.

Nearly one-quarter of all teens say they frequently experience conflict or “drama” on social media, according to Pew Research Center, and middle school children are especially vulnerable to drama.

Bullying and the exchange of inappropriate photos between teens undergoing angst and dramatic changes to their bodies is an ongoing problem, according to Ashland, Kentucky Middle School counselor Kim Moore.

“We deal with at least one situation that involves inappropriate comments or requests asking for pictures about every other week,” she said.

But which apps are serving as vessels for unassuming middle school students to “sext” or bully?

“What we’ve dealt with is Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook,” Moore said.

Ashland and other local schools are far from the only institutions determined to protect students from the dark side of social media. After the alleged murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell in January, schools and parents across the country are paying closer attention to social media use by students.

Lovell was a Virginia seventh grader who reportedly supplanted her insecurities and loneliness by cloaking herself in cyber space. She spent hours on another popular social networking app, “Kik.”

Kik offers complete anonymity and effortless connection to strangers through one-on-one or group messaging. Until recently, the app was recommended for users aged 9 and up. Lovell, who lived two miles from the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, exchanged messages on the app with an account user listed as “Dr_Tombstone.”

David Eisenhauer, an 18-year-old former college student at Virginia Tech, was allegedly the man behind the account.

On Jan. 26, Eisenhauer allegedly manipulated Lovell into meeting up, before he and a friend allegedly kidnapped Lovell. Eisenhauer allegedly drove Lovell to a field and slit her throat. He’s charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder in an ongoing investigation.   

Forty percent of Ashland Middle students said they use Instagram, 31 percent use Snapchat and 23 percent are Facebook users, of 100 students polled.

The wildly-popular photo sharing app Instagram gives users a chance to gaze at hundreds of photos of friends in seconds. The site restricts the upload of explicit images, but the comment section under teens’ photos sometimes serves as a hub for drama.

Meanwhile, Snapchat grants teens full control over content sharing, except recipients of photos or videos can’t download the images to their devices. The content shared in Snapchat “disappears” in 10 seconds or less.

But Snapchat users can still capture photos or video clips by “screenshotting.” If a teenager sends a nude or inappropriate picture, recipients can save a copy to their device. Moore said screenshots of Snapchats are sometimes the root of social media drama.

Recently, a basketball player at the school was kicked off the team after a screenshot image of the player allegedly smoking marijuana was presented to a coach, Moore said. She also said the relay of info regarding illegal activity to school officials is surprisingly common.

Students and their parents alike are privy to discussing issues that arise online with the school. Counselors in turn are resolute about keeping students safe.

“They’re comfortable talking with us. And that’s crucial,” said school social worker Kirby Sayles.

Earlier this year, Moore and Sayles were tipped by a student’s parents about a new Facebook user their daughter befriended. The user of the account claimed he was a 19-year-old student at Marshall University. After Moore investigated the user, she found he had 15 friends, all under the age of 18.

The school contacted local authorities, who searched archives at Marshall and found the user was not enrolled at the university. The fake user’s account was later deleted by Facebook.

“But the people who want to harm children are just going to create other fake accounts, unfortunately,” Moore said.

That’s why the Ashland Police Department (APD) works closely with local school systems to protect teens and fend them from sexual predators online. “We try to be proactive, rather than reactive,” Sgt. Ryan Conley, co-head of the department’s cyber crime division, said.

Conley and other members of APD not only stay in close contact with school resource officers, they also speak in front of middle school students at assemblies and promote safe social media use. While many soak in the presentations, not every student sporting a teenage-attention span will heed a warning from authorities.

“We still do get a lot of calls,” Conley said. “The complaints vary, from bullying on to sexting. When it comes to picture sharing, it’s rarely just one on one. Once someone gets it, it’s passed around.”

In the state of Kentucky, distributing of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor is a class D felony. “There’s more victims than predators in this area,” Conley said.

In northeastern Kentucky, Conley said the cyber crime division follows social media trends closely. Despite claiming 200 million users, Kik, which was scrutinized heavily after the alleged murder, isn’t trending among local middle school-age kids, Conley said.

No students who participated in the social media poll at Ashland Middle School said they use the app.

As far as anonymous social networking, area residents of all ages indulge in a website created in 2002 — Topix. The site gives users a platform to discuss local politics and restaurants, or spread rumors and ridicule others behind the shadow of a username. When teens started peppering Topix with insults directed at one another a few years ago, APD contacted the company.

“This is a small town,” said Conley. “I talked to the CEO of Topix, he’s not from a small town. He couldn’t fathom why it’s such an issue around here.”

Conley said his unit reached an agreement with Topix in an effort to curtail cyber bullying. The school resource officer at Ashland Middle School now monitors the site and notifies moderators when insults involving students are hurled back and forth. Odious comments of hate are usually removed from the public site immediately.

Despite the advice of the APD and the efforts of educators, it’s clear the bulk of teenage communication outside school walls will remain private. Still, school officials like Moore and Sayles are optimistic when it comes to solving social media conflicts.

“Under the leadership of principal (David) Greene, parents and kids are simply open to voicing their concerns with us,” Moore said.

“Sometimes, the kids line up out the door, even if it’s just to vent about something they saw on Instagram,” Sayles said.

When it comes to identifying the best way to blanket the community’s youth in safety, school officials and police agree: Reporting threats and derailing conflict in its tracks is critical in a world ruled by mass communication and the hottest app.

Adkins writes for the Ashland, Kentucky Independent.