Facebook: Getting students in trouble

Colleges and universities are beginning to use Facebook.com as a tool for monitoring and protecting students. "Nine underage students at N.C. State are facing charges of violating the school's alcohol policy after a residential adviser visited one of their profiles on Facebook and found links to pictures of them drinking," CNET reports. Similar actions were taken at Northern Kentucky University and the University of California at Santa Barbara; and "Fisher College in Boston expelled a student this fall for posting threatening comments about a campus police officer on the site." CNET also looks at what high schools are doing about their students blogging at MySpace and other social-networking sites, and there's some good advice (in a sidebar) about parental involvement. Here's a little background on Facebook and other such sites at USNews.com.