Schools getting into kid's business

[Pembroke_Corgi]

While schools should certainly block access to certain sites while on school property.... why are they doing a parents job? If the child is engaging in acts that are not allowed at school or that the school thinks are dangerous.... why aren't they contacting the parents to express their concerns?

It is not the schools place to delete things on a students account (even though I do not think they could do so anyway since the sites ARE password protected) nor should the teachers be expected to do that. They are teachers... not babysitters or parents. If the teachers suspects a problem or has some concerns the parents should be contacted. BUT.... inappropriate sites should be blocked from school computers.

Actually, it is a teacher's job, in many cases to act "in loco parentis," or in place of parents. Teachers and schools have many rights while they are in charge of children, and certainly blocking a questionable web page falls within those rights while children are at school.

Maltese_Love, perhaps it seems like the school is invading your personal space- I can understand how that would make you upset. But just think, what if schools didn't care at all? Things would be a lot worse- for example, teachers are mandatory child abuse reporters- what if they didn't report that? What if they just let children have their "privacy" and left well enough alone? Schools and teachers are responsible for children for at least 7 hours a day. It's their job to make sure kids are safe, and if myspace is a threat, then they are doing what they should to keep everyone safe.

[sparks19]

Actually, it is a teacher's job, in many cases to act "in loco parentis," or in place of parents. Teachers and schools have many rights while they are in charge of children, and certainly blocking a questionable web page falls within those rights while children are at school.

Maltese_Love, perhaps it seems like the school is invading your personal space- I can understand how that would make you upset. But just think, what if schools didn't care at all? Things would be a lot worse- for example, teachers are mandatory child abuse reporters- what if they didn't report that? What if they just let children have their "privacy" and left well enough alone? Schools and teachers are responsible for children for at least 7 hours a day. It's their job to make sure kids are safe, and if myspace is a threat, then they are doing what they should to keep everyone safe.

That is why I said that those sites should be blocked on school property and on school equipment.... However.... it is NOT a teachers job to delete things from said sites (not that I believe they can do this as those sites are password protected. it is like deleting things from a personal email.) It is not the teachers job to search through students online profiles and delete information they believe to be inappropriate or hazardous. CERTAINLY blocking a site is well within their rights and SHOULD be done. Anything that cannot be used for educational purposes such as papers, research etc should be blocked on school computers, IMO. But if they are seeing something that really causes concern and could really be dangerous it SHOULD be brought to the parents attention.... not just dealt with by the teacher and left alone.

ETA: Myspace has a minimum age limit of 14 years of age. IF a teachers knows you are underage that age I certainly think they can email myspace and notify them that you are breaking the terms of service.... in which case it is Myspace that is deleting your account NOT the teacher. BUT I still believe the teacher should notify the parents that the child is underage as per the terms of service for myspace.... chances are most parents have NO idea that there is a minimum age for myspace and perhaps if they were notified they would not allow it to be used.

[Catlady711]

I also think the dangers of myspace and sites like it SHOULD be explained. A lot of weird stalkers and predators use sites like that to find information on people. Not all kids may realize that and are not careful with what pictures and information they post.

Just an adult's perspective

Well said. But remember it's not just myspace and other similar sites, it's ANY internet page, even pettalk! There is no guarantee that the people who visit myspace, pettalk, or any personal webspace are who they say they are.

As a rule I never post or even PM the following info to anyone I met online whether it's on pettalk, myspace, email or anywhere else....

1) City
2) Last name (first name is reserved for only a very very small select few I've talked with over a year or more)
3) Graduation date and place of employment for me or my hubby (school name is reserved for only a select few if I don't mention teachers/dates)
4) Pictures of my face, vehicle or exterior of my home (barring the few garden pix from the backyard)
5) Actual birthdate and wedding anniversary
6) My normal email address (I have several freebie emails which I use for online friends)

You can NEVER EVER be too safe online.

I once tried like crazy to tell this one girl that posting pix of herself, full name and listing her college was a VERY bad idea. She would not listen to me. So to prove my point, I plulled up her school location on mapquest. She'd frequently posted very revealing info about exact miles to her home from there and a park next door to it. From mapquest in about 10 seconds had her hometown. Since she'd given her full name I popped the last name into switchboard and turns out they were the ONLY people in that town with that last name. Switchboard showed not only the address, but also father's name and phone number.

I asked her if that was correct and she went bonkers! She finally realized how easy it was, and given that she'd posted pix of her face any person in the area (or sick enough to drive to her area) would be able to find her and act as if they knew her from the info she'd already posted.

Once she finally realized the danger in that, especially since the info was so readily available online she promplty deleted her webspace, got a new one with a nickname and in the future did not post face pix or name her school. She thanked me for getting her to realize how dangerous it was.

And heck I'm not even a hacker or use those find people for a fee sites, can you imagine how much info a professional with money to blow could get?

You NEVER know who's reading your sites/posts, always keep your safety FIRST in mind, no matter how badly you want to share with others, you don't know them they are strangers!


**In case you're wondering how I learned all that....
before I got the internet I was afraid of it for those reasons, for over a year after I got a computer I wouldn't get internet, then it took another year before I'd go on message boards or chat rooms. I read ALOT of internet safety things, and all the horror stories that went along with them, as well as the threats of viruses and stuff you can get from sharing email with people you don't know. I learned many things not to do, but also learned that even when I'd like to share more personal info with people, it's just NOT a good idea. Safety is more important than strangers seeing my new car or knowing my name or knowing what I look like.

[K9soul]

Well said. But remember it's not just myspace and other similar sites, it's ANY internet page, even pettalk! There is no guarantee that the people who visit myspace, pettalk, or any personal webspace are who they say they are.

As a rule I never post or even PM the following info to anyone I met online whether it's on pettalk, myspace, email or anywhere else....

Yes I definitely agree one should always use caution. I personally am not as rigid as your post mentions, and I am glad or I would have missed out on some beautiful friendships that mean the world to me. I take the middle ground as far as that goes.

On another note, a "friends only" designation on those sites is no set guarantee that someone who shouldn't will never see or use the information maliciously. One must use caution and common sense as much as they can, even in dealing with people in face-to-face every day life. Someone you have known for years can turn out to not be the person you thought they were. But some sites are especially notorious for people using them as a "hunting grounds."

[Alysser]

Yes I definitely agree one should always use caution. I personally am not as rigid as your post mentions, and I am glad or I would have missed out on some beautiful friendships that mean the world to me. I take the middle ground as far as that goes.

On another note, a "friends only" designation on those sites is no set guarantee that someone who shouldn't will never see or use the information maliciously. One must use caution and common sense as much as they can, even in dealing with people in face-to-face every day life. Someone you have known for years can turn out to not be the person you thought they were. But some sites are especially notorious for people using them as a "hunting grounds."

My parents made sure my myspace was "friends only". Honestly, I don't get why people have to get stupid and give their information to a stranger. Isn't it common sense?? It often results in a tragic end with sites like myspace. My friends put the initials of our school one myspace, I WOULD NEVER even think of putting that, even with the "friends only" option.

[Alysser]

I swear to you that I didn't hear wrong. They even searched our town on myspace. If you ask anyone of my friends they will say the same thing.

Mugsy, I agree with you that they can make you delete it if someone is on it in school but no ever is. We rarley use the computers and even if anyone wanted to it's blocked. But he clearly said, and I heard it with my own ears that they can report you to myspace admin or something and make you delete your myspace, or the will do so. It just pisses me off.

I really don't have a problem with school but they are always butting into our outside lives. At least at MY school they are.

[RICHARD]

Can I calrify one thing?


Like Mugsy said, YOU ARE IN SCHOOL TO LEARN.


I am sure all the kids that are using SCHOOL COMPUTERS to play games, post on myspace and downlaod music are all caught up with their school work and are all 4.0 GPA students.

Go home and do stupid computer tricks on your own time....the taxpayer's have paid so you can have computer access.....respect their investment, get an education so you can have a say in what goes on in schools across the country.

[IRescue452]

The greatest thing about myspace, you can limit access to your profile to only approved friends. Use that feature anytime its available on a website.

[jackie]

Go home and do stupid computer tricks on your own time....the taxpayer's have paid so you can have computer access.....respect their investment, get an education so you can have a say in what goes on in schools across the country.

She just stated that it is blocked on her school computers.

I am very surprised that they can prevent you from having a myspace account. Did you talk to your parents about it?

[Lady's Human]

What the school may be doing is ensuring that their students who are under 14 do not have a Myspace account, which according to the myspace TOS is completely legit. Anyone can report an account which is from and underage person, and they will remove it.

Anything other than that would seem to be legally questionable at best.

[sparks19]

What the school may be doing is ensuring that their students who are under 14 do not have a Myspace account, which according to the myspace TOS is completely legit. Anyone can report an account which is from and underage person, and they will remove it.

Anything other than that would seem to be legally questionable at best.

Exactly..... they are not the ones deleting your accounts.... what in fact is happening is all of the kids under 14 are violating the terms of service set forth by MySpace. So when they are reported it is MySpace that removes the profile and rightly so since it clearly states you have to be over 14 to have a profile.

BUT if the school does this they should also be notifying parents because I will bet 90% of the parents haven't bothered to check the terms of service or even know what myspace is.

[Edwina's Secretary]

I really don't have a problem with school but they are always butting into our outside lives.

Interesting to juxaposition this statement to the recent events at Virginia Tech where some people complained because the school did NOT butt into a student's life enough.

It is a difficult balancing act for schools and school administrators....

[RICHARD]

It is a difficult balancing act for schools and school administrators....

That pesky local government!

[caseysmom]

Interesting to juxaposition this statement to the recent events at Virginia Tech where some people complained because the school did NOT butt into a student's life enough.

It is a difficult balancing act for schools and school administrators....

Thats totally true I agree with you 100%

[Edwina's Secretary]

Funny ES - you and everyone else not on our campus or involved with our school has said that. If you actually listened to the students you might actually know that what you are saying is dead stinking wrong. When are you going to get your facts right?

I keep on having to correct you...but I will say yet again - dont talk about something you know nothing about.

When I was in High school they blocked these kinds of websites - end of story - no problems there...from there on it is only the parents job to take care of it....when I was there it was LJ. With Myspace - dont trust it too much - even if it is only friendly information - I used it earlier on in college and I had a big problem that was in part due to my own stupidity and naivety....just be careful with it.

Sorry for your pain. But the fact remains that there has been extensive discussion if the school should have done more.

The issue of the role of schools as "in loco parentis" has been going on for a long time.

Not being there would prevent anyone not in the World Trade Center from having an opinion about the events of 9/11.

Again, I am sorry for you pain, but the discussion goes on.