The use of blogs and social networking websites by school age children has grown exponentially over the last decade. With technological advances often comes knew and unforeseen dangers for its users. I am familiar with the efforts certain private schools have made in order to dissuade students from misusing blogs and posting obscene material to facebook. I taught at a private, catholic Long Island school that monitored its student’s profiles through “dummy” accounts. For the deans of discipline it became an invaluable source of intelligence. Several students were suspended due to violations of our school’s “moral code.” I myself am undecided as to where the school’s boundaries begin and where they end. Do under-aged students have privacy rights that are being violated daily?
The first amendment to the Constitution protects a citizen’s freedom of speech. However this protection does not extend to individuals whose words could create hysteria (ie. Screaming “fire” in a crowded theater or saying “bomb” on a plane is an arrest-able offense. Does a student’s right to privacy supersede a school’s need to protect its population? Is it the place of a school’s administration to police its student’s web-pages, or would it be better suited to educate its students on appropriate internet usage?
