Defamation liability issues on student blogs (I)

Reported today in the papers as well as Reuters (linked here) that schools are coming down on students for posting defamatory remarks about their teachers, coaches and principals. It is reported as well that the age range of these offenders span from secondary school to junior college (13-18 year olds). Most of the offending remarks were found not at forums but in blogs and surprisingly, not a one off occurrence.

I have two issues to comment on this series of news reports about such a growing problem with student blogs.

First - are these student venting evidence of a bigger issue about general student angst regarding their schooling environment? Here are some questions I feel needs to be asked.

Are these cases the proverbial tip of the iceberg and those caught are merely those who have been not eloquent enough to post their thoughts in a more cohesive and considered manner?

Are those who had made careful and balanced record on their blogs of what has been happening in school have been overlooked by the news media and authorities?

OR are these cases evidence of how the youth of today taken their online freedom by the throat to a level where they feel that as students, they immune to being prosecuted for their misdemeanours online? Have their education failed them in some way to allow them to believe that they have a right to do or say what ever comes to mind regardless of what or whose rights they breach?

I have no answers to these questions - to which I must openly admit that I am no expert on nor have any empirical evidence to give any answer. However, I certainly hope that these questions will be raised before the authorities before the growing school violence amongst young children, the hate speech against teachers and schools and racist hate speech becomes more than mere online behavioural research topics.

The second issue I would like to raise is legal in implication. Should schools merely punish the students by demanding the removal of the offending posts or should schools and teachers take legal action by taking the children to court for having published seriously defamatory remarks affecting the good name and reputation of school staff? More on this on my next post.

Yahoo- Singapore schools punish cheeky student bloggers