talks abouts a wates of time!
sheesh!

I joined primarily as my daughter had got in touch with friends from kindergarten that had moved away and I wondered if I could find old friends of my own, and I did. I also friended my kids so that they know I can see everything they post. I don't know if it makes them act any different if they know I can see it, but it may help. I have seen some silly pictures, but nothing I wouldn't object to. I also know to take everything with a pinch of salt as I have seen people get "married" on facebook and know that it is nothing of the sort. I also think that anything you find out about anyone on facebook is likely to be stretching the truth at the mildest to downright lies - usually all in fun. It may be hard to tell the difference, but if you know the people involved it can give you a clue.

As to whether colleges and prospective employers are looking, then they have to work to find out anything really incriminating and at the same time they have to be really careful as I said before, a lot of what is posted is just not true. In these days of photoshop, even seeing a picture of someone doing something is perhaps not as genuine as you might think. The best you can get is a trend. If someone is continually updating their status to show their wild behavior then that may be true. If something seems out of character, then it quite possibly is just someone's wishful thinking.

It's time for the PA Weekly to get comments from a more diverse group of Paly students. Certain students have been quoted a number of times in PA Weekly articles. There are an awful lot of students who have never been interviewed/quoted for their opinions...

Facebook and MySpace should not be accessible from school unless the student is on their personal laptop. I don't send my kid to school to feed her social addiction.

I have made comments about Facebook/MySpace before and had them deleted. I guess Palo Alto on line doesn't want the parents to know what their kids are up to. I can safely say the more a parent navigates these sites, the more aghast they will be.

HERE IS SOMETHING I WROTE UNDER ANOTHER ARTICLE WHERE THEY POSTED PART OF SOMETHING A KID HAD ON FACEBOOK. I THINK IT APPLIES HERE TOO.

Facebook doesn't even employ people under the mean age of 32. I guess they figure older people just won't 'get it'. Well, they do. They get it all too well. Smart parents know what their teens are up to on MySpace and Facebook, and monitor it. This guy is over 18, he is an adult. He should be old enough to know better.

I get that FaceBook and MySpace are simply fodder for one upsmanship and the 'everyone else is doing it' mentality so prevalent when one is young. I have mastered both sites and used to go 'undercover' for frustrated parents who were worried about their kids. I don't give a dang about their (the kids) notions of 'privacy', their cry that MySpace is THEIR space. Until they are 18, their online space is YOUR business too. Many teens I have known switched from MySpace to FaceBook because parents learned to navigate MySpace. Then, Blackberry came out to the masses and offered Facebook on their main menu, now adults are all over that service too. Regardless of whether you are another kid or you are an adult, law enforcement or the MEDIA, you should be aware that you are always being watched by someone, and should act accordingly. Many employers look at those sites too, they have specialists that know how to tie an id to an applicant. People have lost jobs because of what is posted on these sites. If you don't want to be hung because of something written on a website, then don't post it.

I agree that those social networking sites should not be accessible at schools.

This article and the comments makes it seem that all the high school kids are posting indecent stuff. This is not the case. I have 3 students all with facebook and they are responsible users and so are their real friends who have chosen to friend me. I do watch what is happening and I have never seen those who know I am their friend, post anything on the public walls, or pictures that is anything but funny and acceptable. There may be a lot of kids posting inappropriate stuff, but there are lots that are not.

Surprised Palo Alto On Line can even SPELL 'uncensored'. There are a lot of kids on these social networking sites with 2 I'd's, one that the parents can see and another that has the more worrisome stuff. Not saying ALL kids, but some.