Rights vs. Responsibilities

A public university recently banned a website, juicycampus.com, from its campus servers. This is similar to what public schools try to do with social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. There are groups of people who want to cry "Free Speech" at the university and insist that it violates their Constitutional rights.

But where do our rights begin and end? What are our responsibilities as public institutions? The website in question is quite controversial. Students can basically write whatever they want, and they don't have to put their name on it. In fact, when you visit the site, here is the banner at the top of the page:

This is the place to spill the juice about all the crazy stuff going on at your campus. It's totally anonymous - no registration, login, or email verification required.

The posts range from the mild to the XXX. Some posts even have students' names as the subject line. Now I love a good story. I've been known to engage in a little tell-all. But, with verbal gossip, there's accountability there. When it comes out of your mouth, people can see your face. They can repeat it with your name attached. But when you log online, anonymously, it's out there for everyone and there is no accountability.

I think I applaud the Texas school for banning it from their servers. I think that young people need someone to lay down control once and a while for them--they often make decisions that aren't in the best interests for anyone. I'm all about free speech, but students and adults alike have to remember that with that right comes heavy responsibilities. And using this site to shirk those responsibilities is not good.