Tag Archives: myspace

Drama, chatter and gossiping between kids at school doesn’t stop when they leave the schoolyard, and it never has. In the Mesozoic era before the Internet, the conversation continued on party lines and during sleepovers. As technology developed, instant message and texting became the media of choice to keep the off-campus conversation going. But that was aimed at a targeted audience and rarely involved, for example, yelling about something for all to hear. Social media has changed everything, moving that …

A school district in Indiana last month finally settled a free-speech dispute over suspensions it handed out to two students who had posted revealing photos of themselves online. How much control can schools actually exert over the things students do and say on the Internet? District was blocked from disciplining students for social media postings Supreme Court case from 1969 guides school speech litigation Student speech must be found disruptive to the school to be subject to punishment   Unconstitutionally …

A celebrity sends a tweet to his hundreds of thousands of followers that seems to encourage vigilante justice. An anonymous group creates a Facebook page that, under the guise of “freedom of speech,” encourages users to post unflattering comments about students and teachers at a local high school. A teenager gets in a fight with friends who, in turn, write more than 100 mean-spirited tweets about her. What do they all have in common? Each is a recent example of …

In 2005, college student Loren Williams was killed in a motorcycle accident. His grieving mother, yearning to feel closer to her son, wanted to use his Facebook page. More than just seeing the site, she wanted to see his correspondence, to read his messages, in hopes of understanding her son better. A 25-year-old federal law, however, barred her from accessing his account. See also: Podcast: Accessing Your Family Member’s Facebook Account after They Die Video: Planning for Your Social Media …