As concern about Internet safety on Web sites such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com have reached the national level, prompting a congressional panel on the topic last month, college students have become more aware of their own Internet privacy.
The vast majority of college students use an Internet networking site, with 85 percent of all undergraduates registered for Facebook, according to a January 2 Austin American-Statesman article. Facebook and MySpace allow users to create personal profiles with contact information, upload photographs and network with friends.
Chris Hughes, a spokesman for Facebook, said it is the most secure networking site on the Internet.
We're leading the industry with our two-tiered privacy control system
Hughes said in an e-mail. Because college users must have an '.edu' e-mail (address) from their schools no one is ever 'anonymous' on the network. Users can also choose exactly who they want to see their profile.
Alex Patnode, an Ohio University sophomore who has profiles on both Facebook and MySpace, agreed that Facebook is more secure but posts personal information on both sites.
I keep off any information that I don't want everyone to see such as my home address
Patnode said. I do post which dorm I live in and my phone number
though.
Wes Somogy, a junior who uses Facebook, said he does not feel comfortable posting any contact information other than his school e-mail address.
It's a personal feeling of mine that I don't need to be sharing my life with the whole world
Somogy said. I'm open to friends
but I don't want my personal information used against me
like has happened at other schools.
Police at several universities, including Purdue University and Penn State University, have used information posted on Facebook to make arrests. In April, police arrested five teens in Kansas after they posted their plans for a school shooting on MySpace, according to an April 20 report by CBS News.
In early April, a Congressional panel had hearings on potential laws to thwart online predators, according to an April 11 Reuters report. The hearings led MySpace to delete 250,000 profiles of children under 14 and hire a chief security officer to protect users from predators.
Junior Julie Horton said she worries about strangers finding her contact information on networking sites.
I've gotten messages from some strange people on Facebook
Horton said. It's easy to feel safe because they go to my school
but you never know who could find your profile.
WiredSafety, an Internet safety advocacy group, claims on its Web site that networking sites are inherently insecure, relying on a small number of moderators to monitor millions of profiles.
MySpace has approximately a dozen people to monitor all user activities on the site
according to WiredSafety's Web site. Even when a violation is substantiated
