Blogging ban provokes a debate over cyberspace

I don’t know what to say…

It’s an open invitation to predators and an activity Pope John XIII Regional High School in Sparta will no longer tolerate, Rev. Kieran McHugh told a packed assembly of 900 high school students two weeks ago.
Effective immediately, and over student complaints, the teens were told to dismantle their Myspace.com accounts or similar sites with personal profiles and blogs. Defy the order and face suspension, students were told.
In the arena of unregulated online communities, which has largely escaped the reach of schools, Pope John appears to be breaking new ground. While public and private schools routinely block access to non-educational Web sites on school computers, Pope John’s order seeks to reach into students’homes.
“I don’t see this as censorship,” McHugh said this week. “I believe we are teaching common civility, courtesy and respect.

… except that there are 1000 ways to crack a nut, this one being the sledgehammer way.