The Facebook Backlash
While popular social network MySpace has been widely attacked in the news, Facebook had up until recently remained relatively unscathed.
Well, Kent State may soon decide to disallow its athletes from participating in Facebook groups:
One football player’s interests are “football, parties and drinking” – but he is only 18 years old. Some underage gymnasts had double-shots at a party over the summer. One wrestler is “in a relationship” with one of the gymnasts. Another wrestler doesn’t have any favorite books because he doesn’t “know how to read.”
But pretty soon Facebook members won’t be able to find any of this information.
Kent State student athletes may be forced to remove their Facebook profiles within the next few days, said Laing Kennedy, Kent State athletic director.
“We are reviewing the situation,” he said. “I’m not wanting to limit student athletes’ ability to communicate with their friends and family. The concern we have is that some of them have put up on it a lot of personal information. Although the intent is harmless, the perception is that it is an invitation to the wrong people. Our interest is to protect our students.”
Read: our interest is to control our “student”-athletes’ public image and off-campus speech. Any bets on how long it will take until the UO adopts this policy?
