Facebook: To View or Not to View

We asked college representatives the following question: Should parents (or colleges) monitor a high school students Facebook account. Here are their answers:

From Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut:

Facebook and social networking have become more and more popular with high school and college students. In fact, the number of adults who use it has increased substantially over the past year! With all of the new technology and the media weighing in, it is easy for parents to want to check what is going on with their son/daughter's Facebook....who are they talkng with, what do their picutres look like, and what they have posted and will the information hurt their chances to get into college or get a job. These are all valid reasons, however, trust and education must be the norm and not demanding to be on their page unless they decide to make you a "friend". More important, students should remember that their information is out there for the public and some schools may decide to look at it, also other students may use Facebook to learn about their future roommate and may decide they would not make a good match based upon the information and pictures provided. Parents need to weigh in if their son/daugther is spending too much time on Facebook and it is affecting their homework and/or other responsibilities. However, beyond that, Facebook is the students domain and to invade it is taking away a part of their maturing. Instead of trying to have complete access, talk and learn and maybe even set up your own account and ask your son/daughter to be your "friend".

A few other responses from Twitter:

"We certainly do not "monitor" students profile pages. We do encourage students to get involved with social media as a way to connect with us"
"Parents should absolutely monitor until they hit 18/move out. Anyone I hire gets Googled and Facebooked."

"I think parents should monitor their kids fb page. Still debating on admissions officers, there are other programs we use."

"Speaking unofficially, I doubt our admissions officers could monitor FB accts for 5800 new students. As to parents? That's up to them."

"If you say something in the middle of the town square, you really shouldn't be too surprised when someone actually listens."

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