Social networking — no parents allowed
September 9, 2010 by Geneva ReidPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Student Life, Tech News
No parents. No employers. That’s what a student networking site that recently launched is promising its users. CollegeOnly, the latest in a growing list of social networking sites, restricts membership to students.
In fact, it claims it’s “the only one that is free from parents, potential employers, and other folks that shouldn’t see what you are up to on a Saturday night …”
Not surprisingly, the brains behind the idea is Josh Weinstein — the same guy who created GoodCrush and RandomDorm.
Weinstein is a 2009 Princeton grad, and he’s already made CollegeOnly available to students at Cornell, Yale and, of course, Princeton. Students at Dartmouth and Duke should be able to sign up in a few weeks, he told The Chronicle of Higher Education.
If you’re wondering how CollegeOnly plans to ban faculty, staff, administrators and alumni from using the site, here’s what they tell users on their FAQ page:
- They cross-reference e-mail addresses.
- Users can submit the e-mail addresses (professors, parents, etc.) they’d like banned from using the site.
- Some of the site’s moderators include students on each school’s campus.
Do you think the “no parents” website will take off? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Tags: CollegeOnly, Josh Weinstein
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September 8th, 2010 at 10:32 am
You should never, ever post anything on any website that you would not want to see on the front page of the New York Times – now or in 20 years. Period.
September 8th, 2010 at 10:34 am
I think that the development of this website possibly presents the potential of a slippery slope. The Internet has few regulations as is, and this may create a “Cyber Wild West.” For example, at one university, a student posted derogatory comments towards another individual at the university. Because there was access, a very potential danger was averted. Without some intervention by parents, adminstrators or future employers on extreme comments made by social networking website users, we could quite possibly be walking into a mine field.
September 8th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Perhaps someone will try this, but exactly how will it be funded? Last time I checked, websites tend to go for clients who have disposable income to lure advertising. Or payments due? Otherwise, I think the site could be “busted” by appropriate peer pressure. I’m sure someone would come up with a clever way to “leak” material out of the site for all the world to see.
September 8th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Will not work! Like someone else said you should not post things that you do not want to see on the front page of the newpaper now or for the next twenty years. Also, there are parents and administrators/faculty that are also students at their institutions, so they would also have student emails that would allow them access. You just will not be able to eliminate all of them from having access.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
How does the site plan to deal with students who are parents? with students that are also teachers?
September 11th, 2010 at 11:55 am
This won’t work on a large scale. The whole process sounds very labor intensive. Social network users want to be able to join a group that is quick and easy without all the policing efforts. Plus it sounds very restrictive, what to do if you want to converse with many friends who aren’t in college – sounds like a dead end?
September 15th, 2010 at 11:37 am
What’s the point? Doesn’t Facebook(and other social network sites) already have ways to screen out people from seing certain information/social networks?…I know there have been security issues with Facebook, but it seems that you can block out or limit viewing access to certain people pretty easily…unless someone is some kind of cyber-stalker-hacker or something….beer pongers, crazy party antics, inside jokes, personal opinions, pics , etc can all be shared in private groups on Facebook already so why the need for this?….bottom line is that the previous poster Eileen’s comment is right on target.