RPS cautions students about Facebook use

Several departments have joined together to launch a campaign warning students of the dangers posed by popular networking sites such as Facebook.com.\nSimilar to University Information Technology Systems' campaigns to educate students about computer use, the Dean of Students Office, athletics department and Residential Programs and Services have put together several posters around campus to remind students that much of what they put on Facebook can be accessed by prospective employers -- or worse, by stalkers.\n"A good rule is that if you don't want it on the front page of a newspaper, you probably don't want it on Facebook," said adjunct professor of psychology Cynthia M. Moore, who had a key role in designing the campaign.\nRPS discovered that about 42,000 IU students and alumni had signed up for accounts on the site, RPS representative Pam Sprong said.\nSince Facebook is ranked as the seventh most visited site on the Web, according to Internet auditing firm comScore Media Metrix, that number can only grow. \nFacebook is already ranked as the world's most visited photo site, with members uploading 1.5 million new pictures every day.\n"You might post something for a few minutes and take it off, but I can almost guarantee someone has seen it and archived it," Moore said.\nAs more employers check Facebook, incriminating photos can cripple students' chances at a good job or internship.\nBut photos aren't the only thing users have to worry about. Words can hurt, too.\n"There are groups with distasteful, crude names, with bad language that is just improper to use at anytime," Moore said. "Employers are looking at that type of thing to get a feel for peoples' personality."\nSeveral cases of stalking and intimidation via Facebook have been reported to the campus police, IU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger said.\nMinger is quick to point out, however, that such cases are similar to other cases brought to the department's attention that involve new technology like e-mail or cell phones.\nThough some campus police departments actively monitor Facebook for illegal activity, Minger said that is not the case at IU and there are no plans to change in the immediate future.\n"In an eight-hour shift, our officers spend very little time near a computer," he said.\nThe easiest thing users can do to avoid stalking is not post an excessive amount of personal information such as addresses, phone numbers or schedule of classes, Minger said.\nSocial networking sites can be a hindrance in many ways, but Moore, who said she thinks the site is a great way to organize events, said it's not all doom and gloom.\n"We just want students to make good choices about the info they're putting out there," she said. "Look at it this way: If former President Clinton and current President Bush had Facebook accounts in college, probably neither of them would have been elected president"