Facebook
photo incriminates students for underage
drinking
Staff
Editorial
Officials
at North Carolina State University recently
used photographs on the popular Web site
facebook.com to cite nine students for
underage drinking. A resident adviser
found photos of suspicious behavior on
the Web site and reported the nine students
Oct. 26. The students will face disciplinary
action, which could include probation
or assignment to an alcohol education
class.
Administrators at North Carolina State defend the actions taken by the resident
adviser, saying she was doing her job by reporting suspected transgressions
of the university’s policies. Such actions at other universities would
violate the spirit of communal trust between students and administration that
makes the college community what it is. Utilizing facebook.com as a surveillance
tool is abusive and would create a “Big Brother” police-state climate.
That is not the type of community atmosphere that should be allowed to pervade
student life.
Granted, the use of facebook.com to detect violations of university policies
is legal. Just because it can be done, does not mean it should be done. The
objective of cultivating a community of trust supersedes the objective of using
non-traditional methods to crack down on underage drinking.
In other words, the benefits do not outweigh the costs.
There are better, non trust-violating ways of combating underage drinking.
Some may argue that if students do not want to be punished for underage drinking,
they should not post photos of themselves engaging in the act. Photos are often
posted, however, without the consent of the people in the image.
With the ubiquity of camera phones and digital cameras these days, a student
can quickly snap a photo of a bacchanalian Friday night party and post it without
anyone’s consent the next day on facebook.com.
Ultimately, this issue highlights the broader question of public and private
spaces on the Internet.
Students should realize that as a password-protected site, facebook.com has
the image of a private network, but in reality it is an open space where one
can learn all sorts of details about someone’s personal life.
If the university were to use facebook.com to detect low-severity violations,
such as underage drinking, it would have a chilling effect on facebook.com’s
purpose of serving as an online networking forum. It would not reduce the number
of students imbibing under age 21; it would just reduce the number of photos
posted online.
Clearly in some instances it should be permissible to use facebook.com to prosecute
students. If there is evidence of a rape or assault, for example, the Web site’s
evidence should be used against the offending student.
With a low-level “everyone does it” violation such as underage
drinking, the severity of the offense does not justify the use of privacy-
and trust-violating methods of obtaining evidence.
The bottom line is that the ends do not always justify the means. Using facebook.com
to cite people for underage drinking is simply not worth the price of violating
the spirit of trust and community that we enjoy.
This staff editorial originally ran in The Chronicle at Duke University.
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