Comments on: Your Space? Not Anymore

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:02:51 +0000

And there's a general Internet legal issue at work here too: are online social venues responsible for policing and protecting their members?
IMO, no. They’re responsible, perhaps, for setting up certain initial safety procedures, or at least safety nets, but beyond that… If I were to go to a bar, meet a rapist, and go home with him, no one would think to point a finger at the bar. MySpace and places like it are social meeting points, not social regulators.

By: FerrousBuller

FerrousBuller — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 19:33:57 +0000

“He was at a fancy boarding school, bought acid from some other kid, and before trying it posted about it on his MySpace account. Got caught by the administration. No good.”

News flash, kids: the Internet ain’t private. Once it’s online in a public venue under your own name, it’s become a matter of public record - period. Anyone stupid enough to post online about procuring illegal drugs under (presumably) their own name deserves to be culled from the herd. :-)

As to the more general question, it’s a tricky path to navigate. On the one hand, online predators do exist, even if the extent of the threat they pose is sometimes exaggerated, and reasonable measures need to be taken to protect minors. You’re unlikely to make a 14-year-old who’s just been raped by an Internet stalker feel any better by telling them they’re in a statistical minority; or comfort their parents by talking about the importance off self-expression online. And while I generally favor granting minors a fair measure of personal autonomy, young people frequently do very stupid things; “protecting them from themselves” sounds patronizing, but it is occasionally necessary.

Put another way, it isn’t all the times your kids are perfectly safe by themselves that you worry about; it’s the rare times when it isn’t safe - who will be around to protect them then?

And there’s a general Internet legal issue at work here too: are online social venues responsible for policing and protecting their members? If you run a bar or a restaurant, you bear some legal responsibility for what goes on within your walls; should similar obligations be placed on the proprietors of virtual spaces?

OTOH, fears can be exaggerated into paranoia and sometimes schools et al come up with far too broad or draconian a policy, or use it as a smokescreen for controlling other forms of free speech (e.g., banning criticism), or are more concerned with covering their own asses than protecting minors.

Oh well, silver lining: least it’s taking the heat off video games for a little while.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 02:43:40 +0000

At my former school, a private catholic highschool, the administrators used the kids MySpace pages as collateral for informing their parents.
I have a friend whose brother that happened to: He was at a fancy boarding school, bought acid from some other kid, and before trying it posted about it on his MySpace account. Got caught by the administration. No good. Then again, I’m all for a little discretion in what you post about yourself online. At least when it comes to illegal substancse ;-).

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 20:30:27 +0000

Jason is a registered MySpace user. I’m sure you could look up his page.

Seriously, its a tricky line to walk, between privacy and information wanting to be free and moralists taking advantage of the discrepancy. At my former school, a private catholic highschool, the administrators used the kids MySpace pages as collateral for informing their parents. Sick isn’t it?