Missouri has passed a law preventing teachers & students from "friending" on social media services that allow private messaging. Apparently they don't want kids to turn out like Waldo.
Thing is, teachers and students have always lived amongst us. Teachers have always had rules limiting their behavior. Kids have always been stupid & misinterpret the intentions of teachers.
This legislation is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
It also highlights a problem with social media which is that none of us is just one person. Short of establishing a number of accounts, it's hard to address that with junk like PhaseBuch, MySpaz or Tweeter. Why would an adult teacher want a student reading about cousin Jimmy's upcoming operation? I know I wouldn't have wanted my high school teachers reading about my personal teenage crap.
That being said, being a middle aged geek who likes cartoons, punk rock & zombies, I have accumulated a lot of young "friends" on the intertubes. Some of these kids clearly don't get the idea that they are posting personal crap to the entire world. More than once I have thought about asking to talk to their parents. Maybe their teachers could do this. Well, not in Missouri.
NPR story here.
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