Blogging ban provokes a debate over cyberspace

[cyberpj]

Pope John H.S. demands that online profiles end, calls forums havens for sexual predators

BY LAURA BRUNO
DAILY RECORD

When students post their faces, personal diaries and gossip on Web sites like Myspace.com and Xanga.com, it is not simply harmless teen fun, according to one area Catholic school principal.

It's an open invitation to predators and an activity Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta will no longer tolerate, Rev. Kieran McHugh told a packed assembly of 900 high school students two weeks ago.

Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.

In the arena of unregulated online communities, which has largely escaped the reach of schools, Pope John appears to be breaking new ground. While public and private schools routinely block access to non-educational Web sites on school computers, Pope John's order seeks to reach into students'homes.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051024/NEWS01/510240324

[niyad]

1. any parent who stands for this usurpation of their authority deserves it--

but the students sure don't. will be interesting to see if the parents exhibit backbone.

coming from an organization filled with sexual predators, this is almost tragically laughable.

[Ian David]

2. Someone's trying to muscle-in on THEIR territory! n/t

[mokawanis]

3. His heart's in the right place, but

his head is way up inside his ass. I hope the kids and parents have the courage to stand up to this jerk and blast him with public confrontations and lawsuits.