Schools getting into kid's business

[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.

[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....

[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.

[RICHARD]

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

That pesky local government!

[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.

[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.

[caseysmom]

Well said ES, unfortunately things need to be learned from these horrible events.