Dialing It Back: Why Courts Should Rethink Students’ Privacy and Speech Rights as Cell Phone Communications Erode the ‘Schoolhouse Gate’

The ubiquity of cell phones in today’s society has forced courts to change or dismiss established, but inapplicable analytical frameworks. Two such frameworks in the school setting are regulations of student speech and of student searches. This Article traces the constitutional jurisprudence of both First Amendment off-campus speech protection and Fourth Amendment search standards as applied to the school setting. It then analyzes how the Supreme Court’s ruling in Riley v. California complicates both areas. Finally, it proposes a pragmatic solution: by recognizing a categorical First Amendment exception for “substantial threats” against the school community, courts could accommodate students’ constitutional rights while upholding school administrators’ ability to maintain a safe environment

Netcitizenship: addressing cyberevenge and sexbullying

This article discusses the phenomena of Cyberevenge, sexbullying, and sextortion, especially among young people. The discussion, based on extensive review of books, research reports, newspapers, journal articles and pertinent websites, analyzes these challenges. The article suggests some remedies to counter these online social ills which pertain to promoting responsibility of netcitizens, schools, governments, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and social networking sites

More than just friends? Facebook, disclosive ethics and the morality of technology

Social networking sites have become increasingly popular destinations for people wishing to chat, play games, make new friends or simply stay in touch. Furthermore, many organizations have been quick to grasp the potential they offer for marketing, recruitment and economic activities. Nevertheless, counterclaims depict such spaces as arenas where deception, social grooming and the posting of defamatory content flourish. Much research in this area has focused on the ends to which people deploy the technology, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. In this paper, we argue that tracing where morality lies is more complex than these efforts suggest. Using the case of a popular social networking site, and concepts about the morality of technology, we disclose the ethics of Facebook as diffuse and multiple. In our conclusions we provide some reflections on the possibilities for action in light of this disclosure

The Internet Goes to College

Presents findings from a survey of college students at a wide range of 2-year and 4-year public and private colleges and universities. Looks at the impact of Internet usage on students' academic and social routines

Literature Overview - Privacy in Online Social Networks

In recent years, Online Social Networks (OSNs) have become an important\ud part of daily life for many. Users build explicit networks to represent their\ud social relationships, either existing or new. Users also often upload and share a plethora of information related to their personal lives. The potential privacy risks of such behavior are often underestimated or ignored. For example, users often disclose personal information to a larger audience than intended. Users may even post information about others without their consent. A lack of experience and awareness in users, as well as proper tools and design of the OSNs, perpetuate the situation. This paper aims to provide insight into such privacy issues and looks at OSNs, their associated privacy risks, and existing research into solutions. The final goal is to help identify the research directions for the Kindred Spirits project

Young people and sexting in Australia: ethics, representation and the law

The Young People and Sexting in Australia report presents the findings of a qualitative study of young people’s understandings of, and responses to, current Australian laws, media and educational resources that address sexting. The project, led by Dr Kath Albury involved a review of both international local and academic research as well as popular media addressing sexting, and a review of educational resources for young people. Three focus groups were conducted with young people aged 16 and 17 in 2012, and a working paper based on those findings was then distributed to adult stakeholders in the fields of law enforcement, youth and children’s legal support, education, criminology, media and communications, youth work, youth health care, counseling and youth health promotion

Communication and Security Issues in Online Education: Student Self-Disclosure in Course Introductions

In designing online and hybrid courses, instructors should consider structure, student motivation, and interaction (per Moore’s 1993 Theory of Transactional Distance). To motivate students to interact and to build course community, instructors may assign student introductions. However, after examining students’ introductions in a hybrid content-design course and an online design course, we noted that students self-disclosed private information in their introductions, whether to classmates or instructors. To investigate further, we analyzed the content of discussion-board and email-to-instructor introductions in a community college (first data set). Then, we analyzed discussion-board and memo-to-instructor introductions at a four-year university (second data set). We identified categories in the information that students disclosed, noting that they shared demographic, professional, academic, and personal information, some of which were identifiers that could compromise the students’ privacy. Our findings are relevant to professional communication, instruction design, pedagogy, and writing research as the study sheds light on issues that we address as investigators, instructors, and student advocates in a variety of contexts, specifically online spaces

IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS’ OF MANIPUR UNIVERSITY: A STUDY

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of using Social Networking Sites among Postgraduate students of Manipur University. It aims to reveal the average amount of time spent on social media, the frequency with which it is used, the most commonly used SNS, and the social networking site\u27s overall positive and negative influence. A quantitative survey was conducted using a structured close-ended question distributed randomly among the Post Graduate students of Manipur University. The data collected are processed with MS-Excel and analyzed and interpreted using SPSS. The findings show that SNS is widely used among students, and most students (98%) use SNS. The majority of the student used it every day and spent about 4 hrs a day on average. The student thinks SNS plays an essential role today and is a vital tool for education. The student uses SNS mainly for online learning, communicate with my classmates on course topics and assignment matters with my classmates, Reading News, watching movies, Connecting, and interacting with classmates. The majority of the student understudy also think SNS doesn’t affect their academic performance, and lack of sleep and staying late at night are the most concern areas. Finding also revealed that students show little concern about unwanted attention from Strangers in SNS, Internet Addiction, Lack of privacy, Data security, E-crime, e.g., identity theft, theft of valuable data, Cyber-bullying. Research limitations/implications – This study was conducted in a single academic institution; therefore, findings may not be applicable and reasonable to be generalized to all educational institutions. Originality/value – The study is original as the data was collected directly from the Post-graduate Students of Manipur University

Ethics and social networking sites: A disclosive analysis of Facebook

Paper has been accepted for publication in Information, Technology and People.Purpose: This paper provides insights into the moral values embodied by a popular social networking site (SNS), Facebook. We adopt the position that technology as well as humans has a moral character in order to disclose ethical concerns that are not transparent to users of the site. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based upon qualitative field work, involving participant observation, conducted over a two year period. Findings: Much research on the ethics of information systems has focused on the way that people deploy particular technologies, and the consequences arising, with a view to making policy recommendations and ethical interventions. By focusing on technology as a moral actor with reach across and beyond the Internet, we reveal the complex and diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in our case and the consequent implications for governance of SNS. Research limitations/implications: We situate our research in a body of work known as disclosive ethics and argue for an ongoing process of evaluating SNS to reveal their moral importance. Along with other authors in the genre, our work is largely descriptive, but we engage with prior research by Brey and Introna to highlight the scope for theory development. Practical implications: Governance measures that require the developers of social networking sites to revise their designs fail to address the diffuse nature of ethical responsibility in this case. Such technologies need to be opened up to scrutiny on a regular basis to increase public awareness of the issues and thereby disclose concerns to a wider audience. We suggest that there is value in studying the development and use of these technologies in their infancy, or if established, in the experiences of novice users. Furthermore, flash points in technological trajectories can prove useful sites of investigation. Originality/value: Existing research on social networking sites either fails to address ethical concerns head on or adopts a tool view of the technologies so that the focus is on the ethical behaviour of users. We focus upon the agency, and hence the moral character, of technology to show both the possibilities for, and limitations of, ethical interventions in such cases