Re: Chat rooms

[Carole Carpenter <chcrpntr@UDEL.EDU>]

We copied the sentence in our contract in which the students agree to use
the school's Interent connection "for educational purposes only."  I
taped it to the front of every computer then verbally reminded our
Internet users that chats are not an acceptable use of the expensive
equipment which the state has provided for us.  I pointed out that they
could spend their own home time on chats if they liked.  Our school does
not allow students to use the telephone, vending machines, portable video
games, or headsets during the school day, so no one seemed very
surprised. Just to keep everything clear, this will include MUD's.

Personally, I have explored the chats and I find them to be as fraudulent
and wasteful as 900 phone numbers.  You are not communicating with real
people constrained by etiquette and common sense, but to created false
faces acting out deliberately provacative or manipulative fantasies.

     Carole H. Carpenter         chcrpntr@udel.edu
     Milford Sr. H.S.
     Milford, DE

On Mon, 1 Jul 1996, Fran Patton wrote:

> Now that chat rooms are cropping up all over the net, I am interested in
> what policies you all have.  Do you allow chatting?  If so, what
> restrictions.  I see some potential problems.  We require students and
> parents to sign a network responsiblity contract concerning appropriate
> use.  But where does the chat room fit in?  Is OK to chat if it is school
> related.  Where do you draw the line and how do you limit it.  Is it one
> more thing for those eyes in the back of my head to watch?
>
> Fran Patton in NJ
>
> Frances G. Patton
> Albert H. Saley Library
> Mountain Lakes HS
> Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046
> 201-299-0623
>