Do You Agree With Schools Keeping Watch On Their Students Myspace/Facebook Pages?

[Melissa L]

The other day my daughter (6th grade) brought home a letter from school.

The letter basically explained that the school mentions they keep watch on their students MySpace and Facebook pages, that they expect the best behavior out of their students in and out of school, and if they find something on the student's side they deem inappropriate they will call the home of the student to notify the parents.

How do you feeel about this? Do you think more schools should be doing this or do you not agree with this?

[thankfulhealth758]

Um, i think the school should concentrate on teaching them, what they do at home is the parents problem... jeez soon schools will be raising your kids for you...

Answer mine?

BTW: sixth graders shouldnt have a myspace, you have to be 13/14 to join...

[thankfulhealth758]

I think that is the parents job. As long as the school is just monitoring it to tell the parents and they do not take the law into their own hands I don't really care. I think it is a nice service.

Schools should not be able to punish students for a photo on the internet. I worry people will photo shop heads onto photos to make it look like their enemies are drinking beer or something just to get them in trouble.

[Dani]

I have a young sister in sixth grade and a friend of hers was suspended for a fight that took place off school grounds on facebook. They said the reasoning was because it could possibly be brought to school.

I do not agree with this at all, I think what's off school ground should be left there.

[JasperCalmsMe]

I think they're going overboard
They should only worry about them in school
It's the parents job to supervise their children not theirs
Although I will admit when I was in school one of the teachers told us that she had a bebo account and sometimes checked the students pages
She then gave us a lecture on what was in cyberspace stayed there forever
I think the schools should give the children safety talks but not go so far

[midnightmoon]

If they (the myspace/facebook pages) are being accessed from the school's network, that is their right and I support it. If they are not being accessed from school, its none of their business.
On the other hand, the schools seem to always have no choice but pick up responsibility where the parents arent. If the parents arent doing it, then who else will?

[chubbycabbage022]

It think it's a fair thing to do. Keep in mind, MySpace is public and can be seen by anyone, so it's perfectly legal. There's also no invasion of privacy when someone puts it out there for the world to see. Informing parents who are lax about what their kids are doing on the internet isn't a bad idea.

Also, some students don't just attend the school, they represent the school to the public, such as cheerleaders, sports members and club members. The school doesn't want their school represented by a cheerleader posing inappropriately in the school's cheerleading uniform.

Keep in mind, employers are now looking a Myspace and Facebook. Good to practice only putting things you want others to see when you're young.

[liason]

i think it is a catch 22. everyone is entitled to their privacy...

but there have been cases where students have bullied students so much on myspace and facebook that school aged children have committed suicide. one girl pretended to be someone else to tease a girl and she ended up killing herself. there is no reason for school aged children to be committing suicide. and bullying has become a problem all over the country. there have been instances of suicide where people have been bullied or teased for being gay when they weren't recently.

so i think it is kind of a good idea because they need to prevent these things before they happen. and if your child has a page, someone needs to monitor it...

there have also been instances where teenagers are being arresting for child pornography for posting naked pictures of themselves on myspace and facebook pages and people texting naked pictures as well.

i thought that you had to be 18 to even have a myspace page. anyway, parents should do the monitoring but some don't. so i guess i think it is a good idea that schools do it also just because of all of the things i just mentioned above.

also, you can mark those things as private so no one can look at them unless they are your friends. which is a smart idea anyway because you don't want people preying on you or your children. craig'slist murderer anyone?

[Ungratefultent409]

most schools block Myspace and facebook. yes, it is the parent's responsibility, but too many of them don't or won't take it. as long as the kid doesn't put them out or inconvenience them, the children are left to do whatever they want. parents shouldn't make the schools take their in loco parentis status that far. too many parents are leaving the schools to do the parenting. I have "parented" lots of the students I taught. I have fed them, clothed them, and made sure they had their own school supplies. I shouldn't have had to, but someone had to.

[Michelle D]

As a parent to 2 middle-schoolers, I think it's just fine. There was an incident a couple of years ago where a couple of girls put the school name and some provacative pix of themselves on myspace. They were chatting with strangers as well. Luckily, the school did get involved because one of the strangers was a child predator who was planning on coming to "meet" the girls (unknown to them) at school.