How to Be a Good Cybercitizen on a College Campus
Academic standards, schedules and friendships aren't the only things that change when freshmen head off to college. The rules and regulations for technology use evolve, too.
High school students may be accustomed to illegally downloading movies or picking on Facebook friends on their own laptop in the basement. But experts say incoming freshmen should realize that on college campuses, certain digital behaviors can be caught and punished.
While colleges and universities have different philosophies as to what should and shouldn't be monitored on the Internet, most have a responsible use policy that outlines rules and expectations, says Helen Patton, chief information security officer at Ohio State University.
Schools don't do surveillance on their students, but freshmen would still be wise to check out those polices before they first log into the university network to know just what is and isn't being monitored, says professor Jibey Asthappan, director of the National Security Program at the University of New Haven. "You relinquish your privacy in many ways," he says.
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Below are several tips for students who want to use technology wisely and avoid getting in trouble with college or legal authorities.
1. Keep your university emails professional: "It's not like there is a human being reading every email, but school email can be and probably is monitored for certain keywords," says Todd Morris, CEO of BrickHouse Security, a technology surveillance company.
To be safe, students should treat their college email as if it were office or official email, Asthappan says.
"This is not the email address that you use to contact your friends," he says. "Use this email address to contact professors, college administrators and for graduate applications."
2. Recognize that your computer can be monitored: Students should understand that their Internet activity can be tracked if they are using computers on campus or logging into the school network at home. "The website you are using might say you are anonymous, but you are absolutely not anonymous," Morris says.
Pornography and hate sites can be banned under a school's terms of use policy.
"Don't visit websites that you'd rather not have to explain to your network administrator or dean," Asthappan says.
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3. Avoid illegally downloading and sharing files: "Don't pirate content," says Morris with BrickHouse Security. "Just because you got away with it in high school on your home network doesn't mean you can get away with it in college. Universities are under a microscope from Hollywood and music industry, so they hold students responsible and monitor that."
While the use of peer-to-peer file sharing programs such as BitTorrent are common on campuses, Asthappan, with the University of New Haven, says universities are getting better at tracking down the students responsible.
"The first offense is always an educational opportunity," says Adrian Irish, information technology security officer at the University of Montana, where copyright issues are one of the biggest problems with students using the Internet. "If they continue doing it, then it becomes an issue."
4. Conduct yourself responsibly on social media: Students should never cyberbully, sexually harass or stalk someone using Facebook, Twitter or any other social media outlet, experts say. Many of the sites are encrypted, so it's hard for school officials to see exactly what was posted. However school authorities can still use technology to see who logged on to the sites from where and at what time, experts say.
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In many cases, school officials notified of serious misconduct on social media will turn over the investigation to law enforcement, Irish and Asthappan say.
"If it's going to cause a lawsuit or tears you probably shouldn't do it," Morris says. "Many universities have rules that specially outlaw it. You can be suspended. You can be kicked out."
If students have any doubt about what they should and shouldn't be doing on campus technology or the school network, Asthappan says they can avoid getting into trouble by following a simple rule: "Anything you are doing on the network or on campus, consider it like work," he says.
In other words, if you wouldn't send inappropriate images of your significant other through work email, don't do it at school, either.
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Devon Haynie is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering online education. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at dhaynie@usnews.com.
