When what happens on MySpace doesn't stay on MySpace
By Jimmy Greenfield and David Haugh
Tribune staff reporters
Published March 28, 2006
Until a few weeks ago, Paul
Marszalek's MySpace.com page had photos of him and
his friends partying, dancing and drinking alcohol.
Not anymore.
Marszalek, 18, a UIC freshman, deleted his MySpace
Web page after becoming nervous that law firms where
he was applying for internships might see the
photos.
"You never know who's looking at it," he said.
Marszalek isn't being paranoid.
What you post online could catch up with you.
High schools, colleges and businesses have begun to
use social networking sites such as MySpace, Xanga
and Facebook to keep tabs on students and employees.
"Some of these [postings] are incredibly
incriminating," said Steve Jones, a UIC
communications professor who studies the Internet.
"I wouldn't be surprised if 20 years from now
somebody who's running for an office has to answer a
lot of questions to what they had on MySpace 20
years ago."
Some consequences are more immediate, especially for
college athletes who are in the public eye more than
their fellow students.
Last May, Louisiana State kicked two swimmers off
the team after school officials found out the pair
had posted derogatory comments about their coaches.
At Arizona, several female athletes discontinued
their Facebook accounts after one of them feared she
was being stalked by someone who learned personal
details from the site.
Last December, Colorado banned the use of Facebook
in the student-athletes' academic lab computers
after a football player and cross-country runner
were caught sending racially insensitive threats to
another runner.
Athletic directors concerned
Many college students have abandoned MySpace for
Facebook to post their party pictures. One reason is
Facebook, which has close to 5 million users,
according to Nielsen/NetRatings, requires a
university e-mail address for access.
The site has become the cyberspace version of a
college singles bar, allowing users to communicate
by exchanging photos occasionally suggestive or
obscene in nature, letters and personal information.
The result is alarmingly open and unfettered access
into aspects of campus life previously left to the
imagination of parents and administrators.
But many students don't realize that alumni--who may
include police or prospective employers--can get a
university e-mail address at some schools and start
snooping around Facebook, Jones said.
After sifting uncomfortably through online profiles
at Facebook last fall, Loyola University athletic
director John Planek decided he had to do something
to protect the image of his school and the safety of
its student-athletes. Planek threatened to take away
the scholarships of Loyola athletes who did not
remove their profiles rather than expose them to
gamblers, agents, cyber-stalkers and embarrassment.
"I've gotten the `Planek is an idiot' stuff, but
when their moms and dads drop their student-athletes
off on our campus, I'm the dad here, and it's my job
to look out for them," Planek said unapologetically.
"I can't control the whole Internet, but I can do my
part."
Monday morning, for example, George Mason basketball
player Lamar Butler picked up 100 new names on his
"friends" list in about an hour for a total of
1,128. As popular as Butler had become, George Mason
might have to win the NCAA title to catch up to
Illinois star Dee Brown, who stopped accepting
online friends when the number had reached 2,000,
according to school officials.
"How many of the friends on an athlete's list are
ne'er-do-wells?" Planek asked.
Planek has found support around the country from
other athletic directors. Florida State officials
gave the school's athletes 10 days last December to
shut down their Facebook accounts--or else. Baylor
athletic director Ian McCaw used a blanket e-mail to
remind his 400 student-athletes that they were
"always in the public eye."
The trend toward curbing the computer habits of college students, even scholarship athletes bound by a behavioral code, makes some civil libertarians uneasy. Representatives from Facebook.com did not reply to e-mail requests for an interview, but the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union questioned how far a university or its athletic department should go to control its image.
Said Edwin C. Yohnka, director of communications for the ACLU of Illinois, "The notion that this sort of [free] expression gets tamped down at a university when students are ready to explore who they are is a real concern."
Patrolling Internet
Of course, there could be bigger issues for students than just getting busted in a photo with a beer in their hand.
"If you don't want it to be my business, then don't post it," Barrington police officer James McNamee said.
McNamee, who specializes in Internet safety, said it's his job to keep tabs on anybody posting possibly incriminating information on MySpace. It's very easy to do so, he said.
He just goes to the "browse" section, types in criteria for age and gender, then searches for anything suspicious in a 5-mile radius using Barrington's zip code as a guide. MySpace doesn't require entering a city or ZIP code in your profile, but McNamee has found that many users do.
"Everything pops up," he said. "We'll look at the pictures and the names. We'll punch up on their site and see what we get."
McNamee has found sexually explicit pictures and personal diaries. He recently came across photos some high school students had posted of themselves painting graffiti on the school. He declined to say what discipline the students faced, because they were juveniles.
"They basically posted a confession online," he said.
McNamee compares police officers searching MySpace to driving around in a patrol car looking for suspicious activity, and he dismisses any suggestion it's an invasion of privacy.
"Are you saying we shouldn't patrol it?" he said. "There's too much stuff out there."
Other worries
And then there's that future job market to consider.
"In the future, if Google buys Facebook, who's to say they're not going to make all Facebook content searchable?" UIC's Jones said.
Job recruiters say students' lack of discretion online will catch up to them in their professional lives. A 2005 study conducted by executive job-search agency ExecuNet found that 75 percent of recruiters already use Web searching as part of the applicant screening process, according to a Columbia News Service report. More than a quarter of these same recruiters say they have eliminated candidates based on information they found online.
"I hope that students get a wake-up call," Steven Rothberg, who runs the largest national employment Web site for recent university graduates, CollegeRecruiter.com, told the Columbia News Service. "I think of social networking sites much like a tattoo: It seems like a great idea at the time, but you have to live with it the rest of your life."
- - -
About the sites
MySpace.com
Founded: January 2004
Users: 32.2 million
Cost: Free
Min. age requirement: 14
Xanga.com
Founded: October 1998
Users: 6.5 million
Cost: Free (some pay services available)
Min. age requirement: 13
Facebook.com
Founded: February 2004
Users: 4.7 million
Cost: Free
Min. age requirement: 13
Users source: Nielsen/Net ratings
----------
jgreenfield@tribune.com
dhaugh@tribune.com
Tribune staff reporters
Published March 28, 2006
Until a few weeks ago, Paul
Marszalek's MySpace.com page had photos of him and
his friends partying, dancing and drinking alcohol.
Not anymore.
Marszalek, 18, a UIC freshman, deleted his MySpace
Web page after becoming nervous that law firms where
he was applying for internships might see the
photos.
"You never know who's looking at it," he said.
Marszalek isn't being paranoid.
What you post online could catch up with you.
High schools, colleges and businesses have begun to
use social networking sites such as MySpace, Xanga
and Facebook to keep tabs on students and employees.
"Some of these [postings] are incredibly
incriminating," said Steve Jones, a UIC
communications professor who studies the Internet.
"I wouldn't be surprised if 20 years from now
somebody who's running for an office has to answer a
lot of questions to what they had on MySpace 20
years ago."
Some consequences are more immediate, especially for
college athletes who are in the public eye more than
their fellow students.
Last May, Louisiana State kicked two swimmers off
the team after school officials found out the pair
had posted derogatory comments about their coaches.
At Arizona, several female athletes discontinued
their Facebook accounts after one of them feared she
was being stalked by someone who learned personal
details from the site.
Last December, Colorado banned the use of Facebook
in the student-athletes' academic lab computers
after a football player and cross-country runner
were caught sending racially insensitive threats to
another runner.
Athletic directors concerned
Many college students have abandoned MySpace for
Facebook to post their party pictures. One reason is
Facebook, which has close to 5 million users,
according to Nielsen/NetRatings, requires a
university e-mail address for access.
The site has become the cyberspace version of a
college singles bar, allowing users to communicate
by exchanging photos occasionally suggestive or
obscene in nature, letters and personal information.
The result is alarmingly open and unfettered access
into aspects of campus life previously left to the
imagination of parents and administrators.
But many students don't realize that alumni--who may
include police or prospective employers--can get a
university e-mail address at some schools and start
snooping around Facebook, Jones said.
After sifting uncomfortably through online profiles
at Facebook last fall, Loyola University athletic
director John Planek decided he had to do something
to protect the image of his school and the safety of
its student-athletes. Planek threatened to take away
the scholarships of Loyola athletes who did not
remove their profiles rather than expose them to
gamblers, agents, cyber-stalkers and embarrassment.
"I've gotten the `Planek is an idiot' stuff, but
when their moms and dads drop their student-athletes
off on our campus, I'm the dad here, and it's my job
to look out for them," Planek said unapologetically.
"I can't control the whole Internet, but I can do my
part."
Monday morning, for example, George Mason basketball
player Lamar Butler picked up 100 new names on his
"friends" list in about an hour for a total of
1,128. As popular as Butler had become, George Mason
might have to win the NCAA title to catch up to
Illinois star Dee Brown, who stopped accepting
online friends when the number had reached 2,000,
according to school officials.
"How many of the friends on an athlete's list are
ne'er-do-wells?" Planek asked.
Planek has found support around the country from
other athletic directors. Florida State officials
gave the school's athletes 10 days last December to
shut down their Facebook accounts--or else. Baylor
athletic director Ian McCaw used a blanket e-mail to
remind his 400 student-athletes that they were
"always in the public eye."
The trend toward curbing the computer habits of college students, even scholarship athletes bound by a behavioral code, makes some civil libertarians uneasy. Representatives from Facebook.com did not reply to e-mail requests for an interview, but the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union questioned how far a university or its athletic department should go to control its image.
Said Edwin C. Yohnka, director of communications for the ACLU of Illinois, "The notion that this sort of [free] expression gets tamped down at a university when students are ready to explore who they are is a real concern."
Patrolling Internet
Of course, there could be bigger issues for students than just getting busted in a photo with a beer in their hand.
"If you don't want it to be my business, then don't post it," Barrington police officer James McNamee said.
McNamee, who specializes in Internet safety, said it's his job to keep tabs on anybody posting possibly incriminating information on MySpace. It's very easy to do so, he said.
He just goes to the "browse" section, types in criteria for age and gender, then searches for anything suspicious in a 5-mile radius using Barrington's zip code as a guide. MySpace doesn't require entering a city or ZIP code in your profile, but McNamee has found that many users do.
"Everything pops up," he said. "We'll look at the pictures and the names. We'll punch up on their site and see what we get."
McNamee has found sexually explicit pictures and personal diaries. He recently came across photos some high school students had posted of themselves painting graffiti on the school. He declined to say what discipline the students faced, because they were juveniles.
"They basically posted a confession online," he said.
McNamee compares police officers searching MySpace to driving around in a patrol car looking for suspicious activity, and he dismisses any suggestion it's an invasion of privacy.
"Are you saying we shouldn't patrol it?" he said. "There's too much stuff out there."
Other worries
And then there's that future job market to consider.
"In the future, if Google buys Facebook, who's to say they're not going to make all Facebook content searchable?" UIC's Jones said.
Job recruiters say students' lack of discretion online will catch up to them in their professional lives. A 2005 study conducted by executive job-search agency ExecuNet found that 75 percent of recruiters already use Web searching as part of the applicant screening process, according to a Columbia News Service report. More than a quarter of these same recruiters say they have eliminated candidates based on information they found online.
"I hope that students get a wake-up call," Steven Rothberg, who runs the largest national employment Web site for recent university graduates, CollegeRecruiter.com, told the Columbia News Service. "I think of social networking sites much like a tattoo: It seems like a great idea at the time, but you have to live with it the rest of your life."
- - -
About the sites
MySpace.com
Founded: January 2004
Users: 32.2 million
Cost: Free
Min. age requirement: 14
Xanga.com
Founded: October 1998
Users: 6.5 million
Cost: Free (some pay services available)
Min. age requirement: 13
Facebook.com
Founded: February 2004
Users: 4.7 million
Cost: Free
Min. age requirement: 13
Users source: Nielsen/Net ratings
----------
jgreenfield@tribune.com
dhaugh@tribune.com
posted by idtics at 6:07 AM
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