In the article, Youthful Indiscretions, by Dana L. Fleming, the author, argues that with most college students posting their whole life on social medias, lawmakers and college administration are questioning how to protect their students’ privacies. Fleming brings up that making a profile on Myspace or Facebook is free and easy to join, as the user only needs an email address. However, online identities and friendships have disadvantages when it comes to others searching for a profile. Fleming says that job recruiters, school administrators, law enforcement officers and sexual predators can easily find anyone’s profile. These profiles include; the user’s pictures, personal descriptions and information about relationship statuses, where they attend school, and hometown. Befriending someone on these websites is easy, because all you have to do is search the name and click on the profile. Furthermore, there are privacy settings that do allow users to restrict who can and cannot see their profile, however these settings are hardly used by the user. Fleming states that a report showed that 30 percent of students had accepted a friend request from a …show more content…
For an example, Fleming tells of a University of Chicago student who ruined his chances at an internship when one of the company’s executives viewed his Facebook profile and found that he liked “smoking blunts” and shooting people. Fleming states, “The dangers of online social networking transcend disciplinary actions and reputational harm.” (Fleming, Dana 28) Fleming goes on to say that a 17 year old girl from Rhode Island was drugged and raped by three men she had befriended on Myspace. After a Texas family blamed Myspace for their daughter’s sexual assault, they tried to sue the company for negligence, it was later found that their daughter had lied about her age on her