query: how can you grow up in the information age and not automatically assume that anything you put online isn’t private? a kid puts up a doctored, racist photo of his school principal on his myspace blog (why do people even use that piece of dreck, anyway? i have yet to see an attractive myspace site), they find out about it, he gets suspended. and he says:

“I never thought [this] would happen,” Arethas says of his suspension. “I figured only my friends would see my profile page.”

um, no. anyone with a ‘net connection will see it. and then there’s this, from a kid arrested for graffiti:

“The police dug very deep to find me,” says one of those arrested in the case, who asked to remain anonymous because of ongoing legal proceedings, and who would communicate only through MySpace. “I didn’t have my name, phone number or any info on me online. I’ve never used my real name, I’ve never had my own Internet connection (always another person’s name), and I never had my address or name at all posted or registered online.”

okay, kiddies, let’s get this through the crania: unless you’ve got some decent encryption or password protection, ANYONE can see what you write if you throw it up on a website (um, isn’t that why we do it? vanity? narcissism?) as far as linking an “anonymous” blog to a specific author, it’s just a matter of connecting the dots…