Blogs pose dangers to students, Catholic legal expert says

Published: 2006-04-20

ATLANTA (CNS) -- Blogging poses grave safety and legal issues, said Sister Mary Angela Shaughnessy, a Sister of Charity of Nazareth, Ky., who is executive director of the Education Law Institute in Louisville, Ky. "Two years ago, I don't think I could have told you what blogging is," Sister Mary Angela said during an April 19 workshop at the National Catholic Educational Association's annual convention in Atlanta. "Now, I'm some sort of expert." Blogs, a contraction of the phrase "Web logs," are archives of diarylike postings on individuals' own Web pages. Blogs are often collected on certain Web sites, such as www.myspace.com. High school students, who often create blogs, "don't get it," Sister Mary Angela said. "They don't get that giving their name, their address, their telephone number, the school they go to and the hours they go might get them caught." Despite teens' seeming ignorance of the dangers of blogs, "parents know even less about computers than their kids do," she added.

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