Why Many Schools are Banning MySpace on Campus

Since its humble beginnings in the year 2003, MySpace has been growing and growing and has fast become the place for teenagers and young adults to socialize online and meet other likeminded individuals to share their thoughts, feelings, fears and so on. However, concerns have arisen in regards to the material that is showing up on the pages of MySpace and more and more schools are banning the website on campus. Let’s take a closer look at this developing problem.

MySpace and other websites that provide social networking and an online community for young people are being banned in a number of schools across the country while other schools have chosen to limit the use of it. Other schools are disturbed by the type of content showing up on private profiles such as things that are defamatory, threatening, cruel and unkind and libelous to other individuals and are choosing to lay down rules regarding what can and cannot be posted at the profiles.

Many people question whether schools are within their legal rights to do such and the answer is yes. Both public as well as private schools are allowed to limit or completely block the access to MySpace if they feel it is detrimental to any party. Schools own the computers housed within their walls after all and the Internet access comes out of funds set aside for the schools and it is common for schools to block access to anything that is deemed non-educational when it comes to school computers.

Schools also have the right to have a certain degree of control over what students post on MySpace from their homes or during their spare time. Any student who posts inappropriate material about another person that is aimed at harming, humiliating, or is lying in any way can possibly expect that the course of discipline taken against them will be suspension from school or being expelled for the remainder of the school year.

Online harassment is becoming as prevalent and as frightening as is harassment that occurs in real time. More and more cases are popping up all of the time. In Pennsylvania a male student was suspended for a period of 10 days for disparaging remarks he made about his principal on MySpace and in Ohio a female middle school student was expelled from the school she attended on account of the lewd profiles of one of her teachers and her principal that she created on MySpace.

There are laws that clearly state that libel, slander and harassment are wrong and that any person who writes or speaks about a person in an untruthful or anyone who impersonates another individual is in violation of the law and runs the risk of being sued for the said actions. This is also the case if a person encourages other people to demean, victimize, humiliate or do harm to another person. Breaking the law is breaking the law and it does not matter whether it happens online or off, a person who does such will be brought to task for his or her actions.

Private schools are at adamant about what goes on at MySpace as public schools are. Some private schools have gone so far as to prohibit any of their students from creating an online profile at MySpace at all and do their best to make sure that MySpace and other social networking sites such as LiveJournal and Xanga cannot be accessed at school or even from the student’s home computers. It is believed by many school officials that MySpace and other sites geared at young people has become a haven for harassment and cyber-bullying. Yet other school administrators believe that the time spent at MySpace is cutting down on time for studying as well as how much students pay attention in class.