January 31st, 2007
MySpace 'friend' may cost school $3 million
MySpace touts it is “an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends”:
"See who knows who, or how you are connected. Find out if you really are six people away from Kevin Bacon."
MySpace is for everyone:
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Friends who want to talk Online
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Single people who want to meet other Singles
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Matchmakers who want to connect their friends with other friends
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Families who want to keep in touch–map your Family Tree
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Business people and co-workers interested in networking
- Classmates and study partners
- Anyone looking for long lost friends!
Brighton High School in Tennessee is objecting that “MySpace is for everyone” means anyone wanting to make a fake MySpace page for a teacher as well, according to Alexis Amarose, “Eyewitness News.”
Several students were put on probation or suspended from attending the school after they made a phony MySpace page for their assistant principal:
Chris Barnett, who is one of the students who made the page, said, I thought it was (ok), a couple of people looked at it, HA, HA, it was funny….
School officials had a problem with what was being written by students in the comments section of the page. Chris and other Brighton students wrote about the assistant principal acting inappropriately around female students. Chris said, “One girl posted a comment about her shirt and what it was showing, and the way girls feel about him at school. I didn't go into too much detail about it, but I just posted what girls talk about.”
Donald Barnett, father of one of the MySpace pranksters (fraudsters?), believes the school’s suspension of his son is a violation of a right to free speech and is suing the school district for reinstatement to the school.
Barnett also believes each of the three MySpace students are entitled to a million dollars each from the school district and is suing for that as well:
It was just so outlandish the way they reacted, that we were just in awe of the way they reacted.
ALSO: MySpace: Can software really make it safer?
