This interesting story from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune discusses recent suspensions and reprimands at an area high school. What did the kids do? They posted photos of themselves at parties--drinks in hand--on Facebook. OK, I won't argue that high school kids should be drinking; it's against the law. Posting pictures of yourself breaking the law is pretty dumb. Yet, the report seems to indicate that the pictures were not available for public viewing, meaning that someone narked on their classmates.
How should Facebook profiles and other online information be used in school settings? This case isn't the first time online information has been used as evidence against students. It's happened in Toronto, Cincinnati, and St. Louis.
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It's interesting to see this happening on the high school level - I remember reading similar articles about a year and a half ago about college grads getting in trouble. I'm sure there were a slew of them in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which tends to get fixated on one new technology at a time (It's been Second Life lately).
Here's one NY Times article that dealt with a UIUC grad:
For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé
By ALAN FINDER
June 11, 2006
I think many college career centers wised up early on and started advising students on the value of investigating privacy settings and clearing out illicit information they wouldn't want strangers to see. Who plays this advisory role for high schoolers, though?
Facebook offers extremely detailed privacy controls, but there will always be some people who just don't think before they add things and leave them open for everyone to find.
FYI, the NY Times article I linked to has some outdated information about Facebook... it is much easier to search without having a profile and much easier to restrict who can see your profile now than it was in summer 2006.
Also, anyone can sign up, not just college students. But the college networks are still a big part of how it works.
Adults have gotten fired for blogging, college kids have been busted for their MySpace/Facebook pics, so it's not surprising to see it trickling down to the high school level -- and yes, one of the interesting (i.e. juicier? ha!) points is definitely the fact that a peer must have told an authority figure!
There's this article in NY Magazine on Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy", which makes me think younger people (and some adults) will learn by example and adapt to be more selective/secretive when it comes to things like this. In the long term, however, I am wondering if some notions of privacy for school and work will change once today's youth grow up and become authority figures and part of the work force.
At the middle school where I teach, we have a police liason officer who spends three days a week at our school. Two years ago she began spending time on MySpace and Facebook searching for any of our students. She has found that some of our students have created pages that contain pictures and content that could put them at risk to others (predators) and has contacted parents to warn them. It is very apparent how little parents are aware of what their child does on the computer. Even those who do can't stop some of the unwanted attention from others. Our Technology Assistant discovered this summer that her daughter had been carrying on conversations with an unknown man. We have made it one of our goals to provide more education about Internet safety for parents and students. Do any of you know of programs you would recommend for this type of education?
Oh, that reminds me of another good article I read: Controlling Your Public Appearance. I don't agree with all of the advice, but I think it's a good strategy.
Like it or not, information about each of us is going to show up somewhere on the web sooner or later. It's much better to be aware of the most likely culprits and learn how to control it than to freak out or assume no one will notice.
I think attitudes toward privacy are going to be one of the few true generational divides on the web. Most adults are used to the idea of phonebooks, but searching your phone number on google and getting your name seems like a very different thing. A lot of this will continue to come down to privacy settings and how you use them, though. If websites don't finesse them, people are drawn to other places that do.
For instance, I disagree about making your facebook profile unsearchable when it's so easy to lock it down until people can't see any details beyond your name. Facebook can be a great way to connect with people you know, but it's best to check out the networks & privacy settings before you add really personal stuff.
I do think the story is interesting, and perhaps this is naive, but isnt it possible that a teacher or parent searching through Facebook received this info? Re: parents Kids frequently leave things open on their desktop while otherwise distracted or multi-tasking.
In regard to the consequences, the same result COULD have occurred had someone distributed party photos. Granted, facebook and My Space expose not just your photos, but all your freinds' as well- a much bigger scope or web of implication.
It is really imperative that users of social networks use the privacy settings available.
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