Dangerous blogging?

By Christopher Foster

Arah Rasp often finds herself in the basement of Orradre library, reading her friends' Web logs instead of studying. With impending deadlines rapidly approaching, Rasp lets her curiosity get the best of her, and cannot take her eyes off of the screen.

Rasp is not the only self-described "nosy" person addicted to blogs. One group reported in January 2005 that seven percent of American Internet users have at some time maintained a blog, meaning eight million people have ranted, written poetry or created political commentary with this new technology.

According to some, however, the rising popularity of this medium brings responsibility and potential problems such as security risks and inaccurate information being posted.

At Santa Clara, there are 212 registered blog users on the Internet service xanga.com alone.

"Blogs are a new flavor; they have changed how people communicate," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington.

The consequences for inappropriate blogging can be severe, however, and according to Campus Safety Assistant Director Philip Beltran "can be a violation of law."

Just last week, a University of New Hampshire junior was kicked out of a class for writing violent sexual comments about his teacher on a blog. The blog also contained statements about violently raping other students and killing all the freshmen in his hall with a sawed off shotgun, The Associated Press reported.

"It's intended to be jokes purely for a small circle of my friends to read," the student said about the blog.

Instances of threats in e-mails and instant messages have been investigated by campus safety and sometimes reported to the Santa Clara Police Department, and Beltran believes that blogs will probably be investigated sometime in the near future.

"It is meant to be a place where you can put your thoughts down but it isn't like the diary under your bed," he said.

"It is only a matter of time," said Santa Clara police Sgt. Wahid Kazem, who investigates threats, before the police will investigate a blog incident. He confirmed that officers have already investigated threats using e-mails in Santa Clara.

Kazem gives a warning to people who write blogs, or use any type of communication technology to make threats or promote dangerous activity. "We will subpoena the ISP (Internet service provider), get a search warrant, and we will track people down," he said.

Many people, however, use blogs as a way to keep up with friends or to write on random topics, and do not worry about security risks.

"Blogs are empowering," said Rainie, "You have a situation where more people are able to pitch their voices into the commons, attempting to be heard?...?people like its two-way capacity, they can be contributors, can respond to what they see and want to create, and respond in ways that they have never been able to before."

Junior Holly Phan is an avid blog user and does not worry about security risks.

"Stalkers find you anyways," she said.

Phan has used her blog for over a year to write on everything from false French cognates to spontaneous combustion. She believes that blogs provide a way for aspiring writers to practice their writing in addition to offering "interesting" reading.

She also worried that administration or police could potentially overreact to a death threat or other objectionable material on a blog without realizing that students could be making these threats from someone else's identity.

Some people are also skeptical about the accuracy of information contained in blogs.

"I think it's a mixed bag. On the one hand, you have an increase in the marketplace of ideas, but there is also not a lot of accountability," said communication professor Barbara Kelley.

Rainie also believed that blog users should be aware of accountability.

"The minute you put something online you have to presume that enough people are going to see it. You are in essence going public with yourself, your info and ideas. You have to understand that all that is going to be online for anyone to see. Just like you are walking down the street, you have to be aware of things," he said.

In addition to being soap boxes for students, blogs are being considered as a marketing tool to attract prospective students.

"I am keenly looking at what I call authentic student voices on the web site...we would invite incoming freshmen to be official bloggers for their freshman year," said Susan Shea, director of communications and marketing.

Although prospective students would have access to the blogs posted on the school's site, with the university choosing whether to accept or deny individual entries, the possibility of a student stumbling on an off-site blog, written by a bitter student, is always present.

Shea, however, doesn't worry too much about this. "If you are going to get worried about what you could read on the Internet, you would worry yourself to death in a week."

* Contact Christopher Foster at (408) 554-4546 or cmfoster@scu.edu.