An 18-year-old Turlock High student was arrested Tuesday after allegedly creating a website that shared photos of fellow students and encouraged them to rate one another’s attractiveness.
Rikio Sauter, a senior at THS, was booked in Stanislaus County Public Safety Facility on charges of computer hacking, conspiracy, and harassing minors, authorities said.
The website — diddyparty.live — displayed each student’s photo above two buttons: “smash” (a slang term for sex) and “pass.” Students were encouraged to click one of the buttons for each student. A leaderboard featured the top 10 students with the highest and lowest scores.
“Earlier this week we were notified of a website that shared what appeared to be yearbook photos of THS students posted online to ‘rank’ them,” said Marie Russell, Turlock Unified School District’s director of communications. “There was also an Instagram page linking to this website in its bio. We immediately contacted the Turlock Police Department, which worked with the site and district administration on this investigation … This afternoon a THS student was arrested by TPD for accessing computer information without permission.”
According to Dominique Sanchez, public affairs analyst for TPD, Sauter accessed the photos via a third-party website.
“The school reported the website to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which reported it to the FBI, which then seized and shut down the website,” Sanchez said. The Instagram account, though private, remains accessible.
According to Sanchez, the initial investigation revealed there might be more students involved.
According to student accounts, most became aware of the website on Friday. On Saturday, algorithms that could recognize gender and grade preferences were added, along with a chat room. By Sunday, the “most disliked” leaderboard was taken down. The button to view that leaderboard remained, but when clicked on, it took the viewer to a message that read, “Everyone is beautiful. No cyber bullying!”
By Monday, the school sent out its first message to parents, with more following into Tuesday as events unfolded.
Tuesday morning, Sauter was arrested at the THS campus without incident.
According to a Turlock High parent, who asked not to be identified due to safety concerns, somebody claiming to be the website's creator had interactions with students regarding the removal of their photos and “scores” from the site.
“(Direct message) us for data to be deleted of you” was posted on the site, as was “WARNING: People on this page may be under age, as there is no way for us to check ages. Please be mindful how you use this site!”
On Monday, the message “Something big is coming” was added to the website. While the site has been taken down by authorities, as of Tuesday night the bio for the Instagram account connected to it read, “Site offline for now … HUGE update coming soon!”
