A

Although many colleges have imposed bans on social network sites such as myspace.com and facebook.com and picture sharing sites such as photobucket.com and webshots.com many of the bans have been lifted. Students have fought with their schools claiming that banning them from such sites is a violation of their first amendment rights. Though this may be true with public schools, students at private institutions (such as Niagara University) sign an agreement in which they give up such rights. Currently, the NCAA allows its member schools to establish policies governing athletes' Internet use. While most schools, including Clemson and USC, have warned athletes to be careful about what they put on the Internet, Loyola University Chicago is prohibiting its athletes from using Facebook.

Personally, being a student athlete, as well as the captain of my team i feel that for a school to ban its athletes from social network and picture sharing sites is something that sends a negative message more than a positive one. By not allowing students to take part in these sites, the school is denying them the college experience. Instead, the school should educate its student athletes about displaying content on the internet.