The Ethicist – A Facebook Teaching Moment – Question – NYTimes.com
From the NY Times.
The Ethicist – A Facebook Teaching Moment – Question – NYTimes.com.
“Strictly speaking, when these students gave her access to their Facebook pages, they waived their right to privacy. But that’s not how many kids see it. To them, Facebook and the like occupy some weird twilight zone between public and private information, rather like a diary left on the kitchen table. That a photo of drunken antics might thwart a chance at a job or a scholarship is not something all kids seriously consider. This teacher can get them to think about that.
She might send e-mail messages to transgressing students, noting their misdeeds and reminding them of their vulnerability. Or she could address her entire class, citing (anonymous) examples of student escapades.”
— We read this smugly and think kids are silly, we know better, especially us responsible business people. But I am aware of some experts who do “anti-trust” training, and then follow up by having the company scan the stored emails of senior execs. They pull out all kinds of scandalous comments made on email by the execs – we will crush them in the market etc. Only then do the execs grok the fact that the emails they write, even casually, can and will be used against them if turned over in an anti-trust suit. Why do we expect teens to be savvier than smart tech businesspeople?
