Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Personal information now a public concern
By Meghan Hunt
The BG News (Bowling Green State U.)
08/21/2006

(U-WIRE) BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Americans are known for their excessive, addictive personalities.

In everything they do and own, from cars to food, from the television to the Internet, they demand the biggest, fastest, and best, and simply cannot get enough of any of those.

But many times, they are blind to the consequences of their excessive ways.

As a result of such ignorance and greed, many of the college students of modern America are addicted to a new fad, a Web site called Facebook. The Web site allows them to list personal information. But as with any Web site of this type, there are dangers in revealing such details.

Facebook.com, founded by three men, is currently the seventh most trafficked Web site in the U.S.

It has more than 7.5 million people registered from more than 2,000 colleges, 22,000 high schools and 2,000 businesses, according to its Web site.

People can put anything from their picture to their home address on it. There are places for students to list their favorite television shows, music, movies and books, as well as an "About Me" section.

Personal information such as a student's dorm telephone number, cell phone number, romantic preferences and status. Other options include listing a residence and political leanings, though it is up to the student to decide what to place on their Facebook.

A rather large problem that goes hand in hand with putting "too much" up on Facebook is the fact that many students will put pictures of themselves consuming alcohol.

According to Katie Hoyng, grad student,

"The issue is the pictures."

Hoyng explained that many athletes she knew last year were forced to take down pictures of themselves consuming alcohol from the Web site.

"Because of the image it gives BG," Hoyng said.

The key to careful Internet exposure is being aware of the dangers that placing such pictures and information can cause. As with any Web site, caution should be exercised when meeting with people from Facebook. Sadly, though, many students are not aware of the dangers the publishing such personal information and pictures can cause.

"[I'm] not that concerned ... it's just my friends looking at it," said freshman Jessica Buehrer when asked if she worried about putting too much on the Web site.

Other freshmen, such as Nathan Reed, just consider Facebook "something to do." But like most things, Facebook comes with its own set of risks.

Crimes such as date rape and assault can occur if the proper precautions are not taken when meeting with people from a Web site, according to Timothy James, a sergeant at the Campus Police Department. James is the head investigator of campus crimes and said that Facebook is used occasionally.

"We do use it as an investigative tool," James said.

On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most useful, James rated Facebook as a five. The police do not use it very often, but if there arises a case where they think it might be helpful, they go to the accounts that they have made and search for what they need.

A perfect example of the Campus Police's use of Facebook is in a case of arson from last school year.

According to James, there was an incident in an unnamed residence hall in which several fire alarms were being set off. This would be an instance where Facebook would be helpful, James said.

The police looked on the Web site to see if there were any groups, wall postings, or comments that might be related to or "bragging" about triggering these fire alarms. By using Facebook, the police were able to track down and eventually arrest the parties involved.

Though Facebook is used occasionally for these types of cases, one might think that the police use it daily when dealing with alcohol.

Alcohol abuse depicted on Facebook is the least of the campus police force's worries. They have "no time" to look up the birthdays of everyone who has a picture of themselves drinking alcohol to make sure it is legal, according to Chief of Police James Wiegand.

Facebook is a very useful tool that the police have at their disposal.

The Web site provides a "different avenue" of investigation, agreed Wiegand and James.

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