Freedom of Speech

Many colleges are now making it mandatory for Student-athletes to allow coaches and teachers to have full access to their social networking profiles. Five schools already have monitoring policies in effect. Football players in Hawkeye have already gotten in trouble for pictures posted on their Facebook pages. When issues arise with Students, senior members are in charge of working with administrators and the person responsible. Social networking sites are just another avenue for athletes to express themselves, Baddour said, “so even though the technology is new, the expectations of behavior haven't changed”. One person said it is the responsibility of athletes to not be a bystander, as well as to be cautious in the way they are presenting themselves. It is very important to explain to athletes the ways they are being monitored because the kids are often doing things without realizing just what it is they are doing. The issues surrounding social networking won't go away soon, Stone, of the ACLU of Iowa, says. “With some athletes reaching celebrity status, it's important to understand the consequences of what image the public sees with social networking sites in the picture.”

I have had coaches in the past who requested to have themselves on our social networking pages. It was usually only used to communicate practice times and tournaments and things of that nature, but there were certain incidents where kids on my team were question about the contents of their profiles. We were advised to be very careful about what we allowed in our profiles because it would come back to haunt us. During the presentation on Career Portfolios we were also advised to be cautious of what is on our profiles because future employers may want access to our pages. It is not hard to get onto peoples profiles anymore, even with all the new privacy options.

In ways I do agree with coaches being able to access our pages, because we should be presenting ourselves in a positive manner. College athletes are role models to us all, if we see them participating in questionable acts, it may change our view of them, or encourage us to act the same way. However, I think we are entitled to privacy, and a personal life, we should be able to hang out with friends and go to a party without looking bad. I think if someone wants to go to a party and have a beer with a friend they should be able to do that. There is a time and place for everything, and we do need to be mindful of our actions as to not get out of hand, but there are limitations to what should be monitored. As long as it’s not illegal I don’t think there should be a huge problem with it, just don’t do anything ridiculous and get carried away.

KL