Do these college gossip sites go too far?
September 24, 2009 by Tom D'AgostinoPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Student Life
JuicyCampus.com, a Web site that encouraged users to post anonymous gossip items about their college classmates, once hosted some pretty salacious content. That site’s died a quiet death — but others have jumped in to fill the void.
Launched in 2007, JuicyCampus.com included discussion threads such as “Top 10 freshman sluts.” It had expanded to about 500 campuses when founder Matt Ivester said it was not making enough money to continue.
Attorneys general in New Jersey, Connecticut and California had begun investigations into whether the site violated consumer fraud laws, but Ivester insisted its demise was unrelated to legal problems.
Now sites like collegeacb.com and campusgossip.com have taken JuicyCampus.com’s place.
A recent visit to collegeacb.com, which says it “consistently hosts a higher level of discourse” than JuicyCampus.com did, revealed discussion topics including “ugly whores” and “freshman hoes.”
And at campusgossip.com, users can even post photos and videos. “Go ahead, tell it like it is,” the site urges visitors — reminding them that their posts are “always 100% anonymous.”
Should schools take steps to block access to sites like collegeacb.com on campus? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Tags: campusgossip.com, collegeacb.com, gossip sites, JuicyCampus.com
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September 24th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I think this is humanity at its lowest form. These are things that can scar a person’s reputation and be used against them in the future when trying to get a job. College students do stupid things but one hopes it won’t be something that is held against them for a lifetime. With photoshop and anonymous entries, even an innocent person’s life can be shattered.
September 25th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Yes, definately, schools should block these sites. I agree 100% with Rhonda’s comment. We also need to teach our students that 1st ammendment rights do not apply to slander. Even if comments happen to be true, as college students being prepared for a professional career, we should make it clear that we expect certain ethical and moral values of them. Many college courses include segments on business ethics, but maybe we need to expand that to discuss personal integrity.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:47 am
It is revolting how low people will go to cause harm to others, and these kinds of sites go up and are utilized to cause harm. College is a time for exploring one’s life and options, to learn and to grow into adulthood, ior in some cases to enhance skills for job promotions and changes. Irregardless of why people are in school, mistakes are made–often stupid mistakes–but these types of sites make it impossible ot correct those mistakes for life, and they should all be dismantled.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:05 am
On one hand, I agree with Rhonda — this sounds like an appalling trend, and I have trouble understanding what possible redeeming value such sites might have.
But I’m not sure I agree with Pam that the sites should be blocked. There’s the technical perspective, that it’s virtually impossible to truly block a site, due to proxy servers and other ways to get around blocked content. There’s the moral issue of censorship — if these were books in the school library with the same content, would we even be having this discussion? There’s the us-vs-them mentality, which draws attention to sites like this by blocking them, and the arms race of finding each new service as it springs up so you can block it, too.
Better is a code of conduct that clearly calls defamation out as unacceptable, perhaps coupled with legal action against such sites if you can find grounds (fraud seems shaky to me, but slander might have a chance). Blocking sites like these doesn’t address someone making the same kind of thread or posting the same type of content elsewhere. Deal with the content, not the particular site it’s hosted on.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I agree with Earl. Blocking content on the Internet is always a losing battle. It seems that a lot of people communicate online in ways that they would never do in a more traditional setting.
I don’t see much training centered around net citizenship. Maybe this is a topic to think about adding to our list of topics we teach incoming students?
September 26th, 2009 at 10:16 am
As reprehensible as these sites may be, the colleges are not responsible for the content and therefore have no censorship rights. We are trying to help young people become responsible adults, not treating them as if they are children.
One action schools could take is to advise students of their legal rights and options in responding to any libel or slander posted on such a site.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:49 am
These sites did not spring up in a vacuum. The tabloids and gossip columns preceeded them. Lots of TV shows show this type of behavoir amoung the characters. People are constantly gossiping about others. This has been happening to politicians and celebraties for a long timel. This is just an application of a new technology to an old pastime. Not much has been done to stop the earlier methods of delivery. So, why the sudden condemnation of the message? I do not think this type of behavior is good, but it has been done for a long time. When a new type of delivering the message is availble, the behavior has moved to include the new technology.
September 30th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Steven asked “why the sudden condemnation of the message?” That one’s easy. Because now, it’s hitting close to home, to “real” people instead of politicians and celebrities.
You might have fun playing in the mud, but you don’t want it tracked in the house.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I don’t think censoring/banning specific web sites from student access is th best way to go. Two reasons, who’s to say what should be banned in the end? And if we ban something that does not change the person who would partake in that material in the first place, they’ll just go to another source that hasn’t been restricted yet. If you want to “control”/improve someones behavior you need to work them at an individual level, not a mass censoring of information/expression.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I do not think the University has the right or responsibility to censor any site. The role the University should play is to educate students about the possible negative consequences of the comments they post.