Kent State bans Facebook for athletes
Kent banning athlete Web profiles:
Call the National Guard. Kent State is banning the use of Facebook by their student athletes…
One student chose a picture of himself shirtless holding a Miller Lite can for his profile photo. He’s on the baseball team.
Another belongs to the “My cell phone is my best friend when I’m drunk in Kent” group and lists skinny-dipping as an interest. She competes in track and field.
Both are Kent State University athletes with profiles on Facebook.com, a social networking Web site that boasts more than 7.5 million users from high schools and universities nationwide.
But soon, Kent State’s nearly 400 athletes will be banned from Facebook — not by the Web site, but by university administrators.
Athletics Director Laing Kennedy recently told student-athletes they have until Aug. 1 to remove their Facebook profiles, citing a need to protect both their identities and the university’s image.
“We’re really concerned about the safety of our student-athletes and some of the personal information some of them have on there,” he said.
Many universities also warn students against putting personal information on such online sites out of concern that it makes them targets for predators, and some schools review the sites for evidence of wrongdoing.
Kennedy said some Kent students who list phone numbers and addresses have been contacted inappropriately, either by strangers or sports agents.
Although Kennedy said he regrets limiting the students’ ability to communicate, he sees it as a necessary step.
“It would be irresponsible on our part if this led to something serious,” he said.
If student-athletes don’t remove their profiles by the deadline, they risk losing their scholarships, he said. Coaches and athletics counselors will monitor the site for violators.
For that reason, some information is best left off the sites, Kent State’s Seibert said.
“If you go on and on about the times you were stoned out of your mind or drunk driving, and an employer sees that � you might not get the job,” he said.
Erin Evans, a recruiter at the Worthington office of Act-I, a local staffing company, said it doesn’t look at the Facebook profiles of potential hires.
But she stressed the importance of excluding information employers wouldn’t want to see.
“Anyone can Google you and find many different things,” she said. “The Internet is open for everybody.”
Of course the ACLU has a problem with this but no lawsuits yet. If anybody actually files a lawsuit over not being able to have a Facebook profile then they need to get a life.
Technorati Tags: Kent State, Facebook.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: School
3 opinions for Kent State bans Facebook for athletes
Home Sweet Home
Jun 27, 2006 at 10:08 pm
I am not sure I understand this. It is wrong and dangerous for the atheletes to have any type of a facebook account. Even if they don’t list personal info, or anything that shows wrongdoing. It is wrong and dangerous because of their personal exposure and because it makes the school look bad. But for the other students, it is quite ok and not dangerous to them or to the school, right?
Trench
Jun 27, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Basically what it comes down to is there have been some minor scandals with some college’s athletic programs because of what has turned up in athlete’s MySpaces of Facebooks. Kent State is putting a stop to it before it can begin.
Derek
Oct 31, 2006 at 2:42 am
This is pretty disturbing, raping first amendment rights and such. Also disturbing that the college doesn’t care that their athletes are drunken skinny dipping crazy fucks (which IMO they shouldn’t be) they simply care that any proof of that lifestyle of theirs be taken out of the public sphere. Ridiculous. I feel bad for these stupid college kids being censored, I feel bad for the college worrying more about their own image than what they perceive to be a threat to their athletes’ good health.