[Denise_DPhiE]

Not sure what campus wrote this article but got it throught he AFA listserv.


Facebook displays questionable activities
Eyes watch as students describe drinking, weapons possession
By Susie Wahrman/Correspondent
Published: 3/21/06 DailyTargum
Students can join groups on Facebook that express their every thought and desire, without considering who can read the information, which is why The New York Times in January labeled college students as the "Tell-All Generation."

With Facebook's party feature, students can advertise the times and locations of big parties, or advertise underage drinking and drug-use.

But there are consequences to these "Tell-All" Web sites.

The Rutgers Facebook group entitled "Weed is Good," for example, boasts 602 members. In addition, there are 10 Rutgers Facebook groups that support marijuana use and dozens more that support other forms of illegal substances.

In January, The Pennslyvania State University's campus police used Facebook information to close down a party, and many attendees were penalized for underage drinking. Similarly, in Alabama, three students were suspected earlier this month of setting fires to churches as a result of a Facebook message that said it was "time to reconvene the season of evil."

According Facebook's main page, "Facebook is an online directory that connects people through social networks at schools." It was created to help students get to know each other, and not as a security device.

Along with peer site MySpace, Facebook has recently been used for security purposes - in Colorado, a 16-year-old boy was arrested earlier this month when police saw pictures on MySpace of the teenager holding handguns. The weapons were later found in the boy's home.

To a lesser degree, University users also advertise their misdemeanors, complete with vulgarity.

For example, one University Facebook group has a student commenting on a message board, "Drunk and disorderly … it happens."

Other students, including underage ones, have Facebook profile pictures with them holding alcoholic beverages. This trend has become so popular one University Facebook group is entitled "Holding a Drink in Your Facebook Picture Does Not Make You Cool."

Users of Facebook can be punished not just for illegal activities, but also for their indiscretion as well.

John Brown University student Michael Guinn, for example, was recently kicked out of his college because of pictures he posted on Facebook of himself dressed in drag. John Brown is a private religious college, and watchful of its student population.

No disciplinary action of this kind has occurred at the University.

Anyone with a University email address can read any other University profile - and 115 faculty members and 333 staff members have Rutgers Facebook accounts, which means faculty members can easily access the profiles of their students.

With a few clicks and Facebook's Advanced Search option, any University can read a full report of any given student, possibly including pictures of a student or a link to his or her personal blog.

Many Facebook groups discuss lusting after certain professors and hating others, and the professors can easily read stories written about them that are never written anonymously.

Last spring, after criticizing their coaches on Facebook, two Louisiana State swimmers were kicked off the team.

A Rutgers Facebook group entitled "Facebook Stalkers" describes how students look up profiles of random people and keep up on all of their personal information. "Facebook makes it possible," the group's description reads.

Many students at the University feel they should not be punished for what they put online, since they consider the site is a private domain that should not be censored.

But other students said people should watch what they post. These students, such as Douglass College first-year Samantha Ehrlich, said anyone who does not realize how easy it is to access information on Facebook is "ignorant."

Ehrlich - who does not post her phone number or address on Facebook or the blog option on her MySpace profile - added, "People who would put personal information online for public viewing are naive."

"Why would they want other people reading their personal thoughts?" she asked.