Picture this scenario: A student is changing in his school's locker room when a teammate or classmate takes out a cell phone, ostensibly to call home for a ride. That night, a compromising photo of the student appears online--taken with his classmate's cell phone when the student least expected it.

Thanks to the latest advances in cell phone technology, this scenario is now entirely possible--and that has some policy makers and school leaders concerned.

After the Columbine High School shootings in 1999 and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks two years later, a number of school systems and state legislatures across the nation relaxed their rules on cell-phone use by students on campus. Now, however, the emergence of camera cell phones has created a whole new set of privacy and data-protection issues for school officials to address.

"The potential for using those devices for negative uses is certainly there," said David Dahl, principal of Armstrong High School in Plymouth, Minn.

Besides invading a student's privacy in a locker room, bathroom, or other private place, educators worry the inconspicuous look of camera-equipped cell phones could make it easier for students to cheat on something like a test. If a student takes a test and manages to photograph it with his cell phone, for example, it would take just seconds for the image to be distributed throughout the school.

Most schools already have rules in place that address the presence of traditional cell phones--but the increasing popularity of camera cell phones in the United States has led some forward-looking administrators to adopt policies governing the use of these devices as well.

"We've had a policy for nuisance' objects--no pagers, no CD players--so we've just incorporated cell phones and camera cell phones [into those rules]," Dahl said.

"I think we're ahead of any potential problems," said Steve Degenaar, principal of Apple Valley High School, also in Minnesota. Students at Apple Valley are still allowed to have camera-equipped phones at school--but like regular cell phones, they must not be seen or heard on school property.

But enforcing these policies could be a problem.

"Kids have always had cameras, but it's not something they always carry with them in school," Degenaar said. "Cell phones are personal property, and there are literally hundreds of them. It's much more difficult to control."

Technology market research firm International Data Corp. estimates there are about six million camera-equipped cell phones in the United States.

A recent television advertisement by Sprint Corp. hypes the "spy-cam" potential of these devices when a woman secretly snaps a picture of a sloppy eater in a cafeteria and sends it to her friend with the note, "Here's your new boyfriend."

Though many photos are deleted before they are printed, archived, or downloaded to a computer, others are uploaded to the internet.