As I’ve been getting invited to become the “friend” of students and colleagues on FaceBook (I now have 91 friends) I have been reflecting on the ethics of representation on Facebook. The Silhouette has a story about the Unlucky seven Community Advisors who were fired after pictures showed up on FaceBook with them drinking while on duty. Inside Higher Ed has a story, Dental Pain at Marquette about a student disciplined for blog entries that didn’t fit the code of ethics. This raises the question of whether universities are developing their student codes to provide guidance about how to behave on the web. The closest I can find (after a quick Google search) is a very reasonable guide from the University of South Carolina, titled, Let’s face it. The guide suggests that students:
- Keep information that can identify you secret
- Post pictures that “flatter” rather than embarassing pictures that you wouldn’t want parents to see
- Show respect in wall posts
- Join the right groups – think about how they reflect on you
The other side of the equation is what should parents and profs do when we come across inappropriate material on FaceBook. I feel a little like I am eavesdropping on private conversations and should back out. To paraphrase the Marquette Dental School’s ethicist quoted in the Inside Higher Ed article, “It’s FaceBook. It is what it is and we shouldn’t take it out of context.”