Blogging Ban - Cyber Debate
When students post their faces, personal diaries and gossip on Web sites like Myspace.com and Xanga.com, it is not simply harmless teen fun, according to one area Catholic school principal.
It's an open invitation to predators and an activity Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta will no longer tolerate, Rev. Kieran McHugh told a packed assembly of 900 high school students two weeks ago.
Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.
In the arena of unregulated online communities, which has largely escaped the reach of schools, Pope John appears to be breaking new ground. While public and private schools routinely block access to non-educational Web sites on school computers, Pope John's order seeks to reach into students'homes.
"I don't see this as censorship," McHugh said this week. "I believe we are teaching common civility, courtesy and respect."
The primary impetus behind the ban is to protect students, McHugh said. The Web sites, popular forums for students to blog about their lives and feelings about their teachers and schools, are fertile ground for sexual predators to gather information about children, he said. They also are venues for cyber-bullying and harassment.
The sites appeared on the school's radar when administrators learned a student was communicating online with someone who was not truthful about who they were, their age and where they lived, said McHugh, who declined to elaborate.
"If this protects one child from being near-abducted or harassed or preyed upon, I make no apologies for this stance,"McHugh said.
Students, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for disciplinary action, said the majority of the student body protested the new rule. They tried to argue that they have freedom of speech and the school should not control what they do at home.
While defenders of online privacy and free speech agree with the students' sentiments, they said students have little legal ground to stand on.
"The idea of a private school regulating student activity outside of school is not unheard of and there is a long tradition in it," said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San-Francisco-based defender of online civil liberties.
While Pope John's school handbook does not specifically forbid students from creating personal profiles on Web sites, it does prohibit students from posting anything on the Internet pertaining to the school, without the school's permission.
'A bad idea'
A case could be made that the school added a new restriction after a family had already signed a contract with the school for the year, said Frank Askin, a Rutgers University professor and founder and director of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic.
"I think it's a bad idea and I think it's probably illegal -- I think the students have some rights," Askin said.
Bankston and Askin, who said they know of no similar cases, agreed there is no First Amendment violation because the school is not a government entity.
"It's an incredible overreaction based on an unproven problem," Bankston said. "If they're concerned about safety, they could train students in what they should or shouldn't put online. Kids shouldn't be robbed of the primary communication tool of their generation."
Acknowledging that teenagers can be poor decision-makers, at times, Bankston said the school is doing them a disservice by not showing them how to use these sites in a responsible way.
"Kids can get approached by bad people on the street, but schools traditionally don't tell them not to go out without a chaperone," Bankston said. "They teach them not to talk to strangers."
Bankston said he believes the real motivation for school officials was to suppress negative comments about the school posted by students.
Students have posted derogatory comments about the school in their profiles, using profanity, in profiles viewed by the Daily Record.
School decision backed
One student, who identified himself as a senior who was expelled, wrote that "pope john kicks you out once you think freely."
Students also blog about everything from the music they listen to, their Halloween costumes, the sports they play to what they want to study in college. They also identify the towns they live in, their ages, what they look like, their sexual orientation and whether or not they smoke or drink.
One student also appears to allude to the school's ban in a posting: "i recently had to delete my old myspace because of school conflicts, but whatevvv."
Meanwhile, a dozen Pope John parents said they supported the school's decision and appreciated the school's concern for their children.
Mary Kaye Nardone, a Wantage mother of two Pope John students, said she was grateful the school made her aware of Myspace.com. She had never heard of the site.
"It scared me enough that, when I saw what was out there, I didn't want my children exposed to it," Nardone said. "In a private setting, rather than worry about whether or not they're stepping on anyone's toes, they take the safety of the child into consideration first ... that's part of the reason why I send my children there."
Concerned about her children's online habits, Nardone has since changed the Web access password on her home computer.
A social network
"The kids are so accustomed to the Internet, they think it's OK," Nardone said. "They have no idea who they're giving information to and they think it's always kids on the other end communicating with them, while it could be a 40-year-old pervert."
Myspace.com calls itself a social networking system for anyone 14 years or older. It integrates Web profiles, blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music downloads, photo galleries and chatrooms all within one site. Members can create personal online pages and invite friends to visit their site.
Myspace.com, recently acquired by media mogul Rupert Murdoch for $580 million, is the fourth-most viewed Internet domain in the United States. A spokeswoman for Myspace.com did not return calls seeking comment.
The concern for students posting too much information on these sites is real, said Agent Bill Tsigaris of the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.
"Sites like Myspace, Xanga and AOL Instant Messenger provide predators with an outstanding opportunity to research children," Tsigaris said. "I personally and professionally think these sites are very dangerous."
Easy targets
Tsigaris said children make themselves easy targets because they divulge information about their interests, likes and dislikes, all of which are hooks that can be used by strangers to engage them in online conversations.
Students also give cell phone numbers or home numbers in messages, when using AOL Instant Messenger. Students will activate an "away" message when they leave the computer, with a phone number where they can be reached.
"They live in their own little world," Tsigaris said. "They think the Internet exists only in their town."
Tsigaris said he is invited to Morris County public and private schools to talk about these issues with both students and parents. He averages 70 workshops a year.
Area public schools and private schools said they primarily work to educate their communities about these issues.
Glen Ridge's superintendent, Daniel Fishbein, attracted attention throughout the state last summer when he sent a letter home to parents of children in third through 12th grades alerting them to these Web sites.
"Where kids expose themselves to the darker side of the Internet, we wanted to partner with parents to make them aware of this," he said.
Issue is with parents
Two prominent private schools in the area, Delbarton and Pingry, said they do not regulate their students' access to the Internet outside school. They, too, stick to educating students and parents about the dangers.
"That's a parental issue, not a school issue," said Jill Alexander, director of communications at The Pingry School. "If they're posting blogs at home, it's a parent issue."
Alexander said the school does monitor what students say about Pingry at places such as www.ratemyteacher.com, but have never banned them from posting on the sites.
"What fascinates me about ratemyteacher.com is that Pingry students know how to write very well in comparison with students from other schools," Alexander said.
At Pope John, McHugh said administrators are not conducting a witch hunt. No student has been suspended and, he believes, the majority of students have complied with the ban. While the school will watch for blatant acts of disobedience, it is appealing to the good sense of the students and parents.
Other concerns included the inordinate amount of time students were spending on such sites, and future repercussions of posting potentially compromising photos and blogs.
"One child admitted an addiction," McHugh said. "They're logging on at all hours of the night and on Sundays."
It's not as if the site contains valuable, educational material, he said. It does not have information about the SAT, college searches, scholarship information, how to be nice to neighbors or volunteering at a local soup kitchen, McHugh said.
Simple solution
The school also discovered that many parents were ignorant of the sites and have since thanked them for opening their eyes to what their children were doing.
"The biggest misnomer is, 'Father, I know what my children are doing, I know where they are at all times,'" McHugh said. "Trust me, if they did know, their children would not be on Myspace.com for any length of time and viewing the drivel that's on there."
Parents who support the school's action said there is a simple solution for someone who does not like new rule.
"If someone doesn't like the school's rules and regulations, there are good public schools around here they can feel free to attend," said Stephen Denn, a Vernon parent whose daughter is a junior at Pope John.
Experts agreed there are distinct differences between how public and private schools can handle such situations. If a public school tried such a ban, organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Bankston's foundation would mobilize against it.
"If a public school did something like this, we would be all over them," Bankston said.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs...510240324/1005
I dont know, im actually in two minds about this ban, on the one hand, i can totally see where this principle is coming from yet, on the other, i dont think a school should be able to dictate whats their pupils do in their own time.
Regards,
Lee
