A student's threatening blog

The article in Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.) starts with a caveat: "Readers should know that some of the language and images presented in this story may be considered obscene and disturbing." That is not an understatement. The article is about a University of New Hampshire junior who was ordered by administrators to undergo counseling and stop attending a class because of obscenities and threats of violence and murder against the class's professor and fellow students in his blog. "The public blog however did not require a password and could be opened by anyone knowing [his] name," the Democrat reports, adding that the student said it was all intended as a joke, but he has since apologized to the professor by email. The student "said the counseling sessions and being banned from the English class are the only sanctions he has received. He also said he voluntarily took down the journal, which he started his freshman year of high school." That's a long time for his blog to have been available - hopefully it only recently turned threatening. This is a very extreme example of what can go on in the "blogosphere" but a reminder that it's a good idea for parents to be aware of their children's blogging activities - ideally through open parent-child communication, but at least via an occasional Web search of their name in association with other key words in their lives (such as town, school, team, and friends' names). Here's a thorough piece on the subject at MSNBC.