I can’t remember if it was in this class that we talked about schools regulating student’s usage of the internet or not. The conversation was about how schools would give students computers to use but the computers were so locked down that they could barely use google. I found some articles today on the regulation of blogs. Back in 2006, a huge uproar was caused in an Indiana school district when the schools decided to try to regulate what students do on the internet when they aren’t in school. The schools had a problem with Myspace and worried that things posted there would affect the dynamic within the schools. Currently, this kind of thing is coming into the news again.

Students from some of the largest colleges and universities in the country are fighting back against CampusJuicy.com, a website where bloggers can post gossip and pictures about other students. The website boasts that its posts are 100% anonymous and the posts are usually degrading and embarrassing for the students that they feature. About 57 schools are currently featured on the site and many are starting to ban it. Unfortunately, under the law, CampusJuicy bears no responsibility for its content and protects its users from libel through its anonymity. On the actual site, according to the Washington Post article, it states, “our terms and conditions require users to agree not to post anything that is defamatory, libelous, etc.” But a few paragraphs later, the blog implies that it will rebuff anything short of a public safety query: “If your school calls upset about some girl being called a slut, we’re not handing over access to our server data. If the LAPD calls telling us there is a shooting threat, you better believe we’re gonna help them …” Seems to me like sometimes the internet goes to far. I know people are obsessed at this campus with Facebook but what if everyone suddenly became obsessed with CampusJuicy instead. Would our campus resemble the dog-eat-dog world of the paparazzi filled LA? We have a group on Facebook already that gets close to this type of surveillance called “Overheard at UMW.” While that seems innocent enough, I’m sure it would be easy for it to get out of hand.

Also related, Myanmar is cracking down on blogging as a country. They are monitoring the internet, blocking blogs, and arresting people who use the internet as way of expressing their frustrations with the government. How would this work in our country? How many people would go to jail for criticizing the government? Thinking about all of the anti-Bush people out there, I think the jails wouldn’t be large enough to hold them all.

I’ve attached both links to the articles below in case you’re interested in reading them.

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con…

 http://www.ibnlive.com/news/myanmar-step…

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