What do you think about the events that occurred in the article? Do you think MySpace is a reasonable place for police and/or school personnel to be looking for suspicious activity, whether they use their real identities or not? Do you ever post things to your own MySpace that you wouldn't want others to see?
In any social network, virtual or not, this issue always seems to come up. In a public network I think it is foolish to assume that the only people who would look at your page are the ones that you know. By posting publicly you must be aware that anyone can look at it, and can do anything in response. As a result, I cannot make any argument against police or school personel searching for suspicious activity through said networks. However, I can argue that the school/police should pursue the origins of any suspicious activity and they must be sure that whoever they are pursectuting is not simply reposting things. It is complicated to explain the reasoning behind this statement, but it is similar to a rule that exists at my school that I disagree with. In an attempt to stop fights, my school issued a rule that if you are seen heading towards a fight you are subject to suspension. I feel that this is one of the dumbest rules an administration can administer because it does not differentiate who is promoting the fight and who is going in the same general direction. These types of actions cause people to see administrative actions negatively, because the execution is lacking. Pursecuting the innocent to guarantee that everyone who is guilty causes negative attitude towards the persecuters.
To answer the second half of this prompt, I myself know better than to post anything online that I dont want anyone to see. If I don't want people to see it, I wouldn't post it on a system that is easily accessible by everyone. That is why I think that the people who incriminate themselves on the internet and complain once they are caught got what they deserved. Their naivete is what got them in trouble, not the people who punished them.