There's a lot to learn from saga

Schools and universities are expected to use the celebrity sex picture scandal to teach students critical-thinking skills.

Education Convergence vice-chairman Ho Hon-kuen, who is also a vice-principal of a secondary school, said many schools would prepare talks or worksheets related to the incident when classes restarted after the Lunar New Year.

'I believe many schools will make use of the incident as material to train students' critical thinking skills,' he said. 'I spent 30 minutes in nearly all my Form Five classes talking about this with those students who came back for extra lessons during the holiday.'

Mr Ho said the subject would also be covered during morning assembly and students would be asked to write about the incident in class exercises.

Alex Cheung Chi-hung, chairman of the Aided Primary School Heads Association, said different approaches should be adopted for junior and senior students.

'When teaching little kids in Primary One and Two, we will focus more on having respect for others, as well as them getting to know their bodies,' he said.

'More discussion about moral values will be held for those in the senior years. We will also use the incident to teach Primary Five and Six critical-thinking skills.'

The nude-photo saga will also become course material for Lingnan University, in relation to privacy, the media and the internet.

'I believe young people can learn correct moral standards through discussion of news stories about the incident,' university president Chan Yuk-Shee said. The university was also considering including ethics and morality as a compulsory course.

Meanwhile, the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority has received 71 complaints about media coverage of the scandal.

Actor Edison Chen Koon-hei - who allegedly is in the pictures - is set to return to Hong Kong this week, a spokeswoman from Chen's management said.

Across the border, mainland authorities in Shenzhen seized a number of VCD covers and card readers from a store on Monday, according to a mainland news website.

The store was suspected of copying more than 200 nude pictures purported to be of celebrities including Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi and former actress Bobo Chan Man-woon onto VCDs for sale. Customers could also download images of the pictures to their mobile phones for a charge of 10 yuan at the store.