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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

Just out of curiosity, what do people think schools, parents, etc should do about minors and Facebook? Bullying, "naughty" pics of themselves, and just simple over the top kid drama. Facebook is public. It's not your diary. You are sharing it with your hundred "closests" friends. Rush Limbaugh calls someone a slut on the radio and people are outraged. I can imagine that kids are quite rough with each other on a daily basis.

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Schools - Do nothing. It doesn't have anything to do with them. They need no more participation in it than they need participation in what happens after school between two kids on a playground. The school's role is education, not policing the activities of children off school grounds. At most, they should educate children (reasonably) about the dangers of stuff online. No, I don't mean scaring them about predators, but informing them that (unfortunately) people, jobs and police can and will use what you say online against you. As you say, this isn't their diary.

Parents - They should parent. In the modern times that means educating children about the internet and expected behavior online. Teach your kids about privacy settings. If needed, regulate access to digital devices. I'm sure (most) 13 year olds aren't buying their own cell phones, computers and internet access.

Kids are rough on each other, but they've always been rough on each other. The only difference now is that its a larger audience and more to interact with.

Kids need to know that they can simply 'opt out' if they want to and stuff gets too socially complex. They don't need to have a Facebook profile that's 100% public to every other kid in school. They could have a very locked and and private profile, or no profile at all.

I believe Facebook has features in place to let users target groups of users when posting. Perhaps School and Parents' role is to guide/teach children in our digital mess.

School has no business checking people's private things though. Parents may have some rights but I'd also say children have an expectation for privacy.

Schools act in loco parentis. They courts have generally held that educational institutions can violate what would otherwise be the rights of their students if such actions are necessary to fulfill the educational mission of the school.

In Loco Parentis has never really made sense to me. Not when I was younger, and not now. As everyone knows, different people will act differently as parents. Were I a parent, I don't want someone else making decisions that I should be making or acting in my place unless I specifically know and trust their system of values.

Schools should be able to do nothing. Parents should, obviously.

Not every parent is going to watch their kid. What should a parent do when their kid shows them something "offensive" from someone else? Where is the line drawn for bullying? To me it seems like one big mess for Facebook and parents. When kids get foul with each other, what do the parents do?

Bullying is a hard problem to solve, with and without Facebook. Parents always have little control, whether it's happening on Facebook or somewhere else.

Facebook has to provide its users (i.e. kids and their parents) with working tools that can prevent bullying. 'Report Abuse' links that work, for example. It should not be necessary for schools to have complete access to their students' accounts.

  > When kids get foul with each other, what do the
  > parents do?

Bear the responsibility for raising such a kid?

Students shouldn't be allowed to post on facebook from school. Beyond that, the schools should keep out of it. What students do when they aren't at school is not the school's concern.

Schools should do nothing: Facebook is outside their purview, despite their belief that their purview is everything.

Parents should "do" whatever they would normally do in communicating with or disciplining their children.

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