Students' chat site worrisome

Typical college students wouldn't staple a drunken photo of themselves to a resume or tell a faculty adviser their role in the latest collegiate prank.

But many students in Utah and across the nation are volunteering such information to potential employers, school administrators and their peers via the online world of Facebook.com, a social network just for college students.

The new trend has Utah college leaders worried about students posting inappropriate items and personal information on the Internet site, which has 25,727 registered users at Utah schools.

"There are photographs of people without clothes on and stuff like that that's really kind of dumb," said Steve Hess, academic vice president at the University of Utah. "It's part of a movement of social engineering where you meet over the Internet and share information. I guess it's high drama and excitement for students."

Students at Brigham Young University are the most avid users of Facebook in the state, with 15,398 student accounts. The U. has 4,789 students on Facebook.

U. Student Affairs Director Barbara Snyder is so worried about the growing use of Facebook.com that she's putting together a task force to decide how to educate students about the dangers of posting personal or embarrassing information.

Facebook.com, created in 2004, is marketed as a closed-circuit social group where college students can send messages to friends, post their hobbies and interests, view photos on their friends' accounts and hook up with new friends through their Facebook network. To get in, users must have a .edu e-mail address.

That illusion of privacy, Snyder said, could make the student site more dangerous than other social networking sites like MySpace.com. Students think their messages and photos are for friends' eyes only, but they could be reaching a much broader audience, including potential employers, school administrators or predators, she said.

"Anything that's up there is fair game to evaluate you as an individual," she said. "It's not just a social outlet, it's something that can impact your career as well. Many students are surprised by that; they believe it's on their account, it's their information."

Facebook spokesman Chris Hughes said the site is one of the safest on the Internet. The site is open only to members of the educational community and gives users the option to withhold information, he said. The college e-mail address requirement also strips away the ability to be an anonymous member, which enhances the accountability for activity on the site, he said.