Funferal

Blogging in France – response from educational establishments

There has been an interesting series of articles in Liberation about blogging by students in France. Informative – seemingly something in the region of half of students in France have posted on blogs – and interesting. The first piece looked at recent cases of students getting into trouble due to content posted online. The second was a Q and A with an ‘expert’ who is involved in responding to the growth in online postings. Among the points raised are that students don’t realise that – or at least act as if – normal rules and laws, e.g. regarding defamation, apply online. Second that students don’t think in terms of their content being read by people outside their primary audience of close friends and fellow students. Some of the responses, and concerns, are interesting:

Dans certains établissements, les professeurs ont compris qu’il y a peu de chance que de nombreuses personnes viennent voir spécifiquement le blog dont l’adresse ne circule généralement qu’entre élèves initiés. La plupart du temps, les problèmes se règlent par le dialogue. Mais d’autres professeurs se sont crispés car ils ont eu le sentiment que le monde entier les voyait diffamés. Les photos publiées sur les blogs peuvent aussi avoir une incidence grave sur la vie privée. Comme ce cas où un enseignant a été photographié main dans la main avec sa maîtresse…

Underscoring the difference in response (to problems) in different schools is that while one school expelled students another decided to use the opportunity to open debate about the public/private divide: “Avec tous les autres élèves, la direction a entamé un débat sur les frontières entre vie privée et domaine public.”