“If its against the rules offline, its against the rules online,” was the main point behind C.L. Lindsay’s speech about MySpace and Facebook.
Lindsay is an attorney with the Coalition for Student and Academic Rights (CO-STAR), a nonprofit organization that deals with college students and online lawsuits.
He started with a slide show of pictures that he got off ETSU students’ actual Facebook accounts with one picture showing his sense of humor as he said, “Just my advice, don’t party next to a propane tank.”
He talked about how incriminating pictures involving underage drinking and drug use that are posted online can affect everything from whether Facebook users get certain jobs to how they are dealt with on campus if the photos are seen by officials.
When individuals apply for a job, employers have the right to check MySpace and Facebook accounts to see if there is anything on there that they would find unsuitable for potential employees.
If school officials see anything that violates university rules, they have the right to bring the offense before a student judicial court and take the appropriate action according to school rules.
“I thought that it was very informative. This is something that every college student needs to become aware of. I never thought that pictures of what I do now could affect me when I am either furthering my educational career or future job opportunities.” said sophomore Jennifer Traynor.
“I think its good for students to be more aware of the fact that they have to be careful of what they post online,” said student Kristen West.
Lindsay spoke about everything from plagiarism to actual lawsuits he’s worked on with the Recording Industry Association of America concerning downloading music and movies.
He explained copyrighted materials, copyright laws, and what hurts college students when they get caught.
He also gave advice on how to keep yourself safe when it came to online stalking and online harassment with the statistic that at any given moment there are around 40,000 sexual predators online looking for their next victim.
Lindsay’s advice to everyone was to put the highest privacy settings on their profiles, don’t join incriminating groups, limit personal information, and if they get a weird feeling about something then tell someone they trust immediately.
“The same thing that makes the Internet amazing makes it awful. It seemingly connects everybody.” said Lindsay.

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