Europe

A British university has warned its students that they face disciplinary action if they post messages attacking staff on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. See the story [|here]. This could be precedent setting.

The story notes that creating a policy on the use of social networking sites for all students, that sets out what is and is not acceptable could form the grounds for the expulsion of students. It could also act as a significant disincentive to students to post in the first place. The university does not mind students using the sites but expects students to do so in a respectable manner and will not stand for offensive or derogatory statements.

This May 22, 2002 [|Ex-Teacher wins online libel suit against former student] case sets precedent for disciplining students for blasting teachers.

How can this be incorporated into what we are seeing with youth in Canada? I doubt we will have grounds to sue grade 8's for derogatory comments, but it helps to create discussion about what is expected and how we are going to deal with youth with poor web morals.