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references
Investigations
Social networking sites are increasingly being used in legal, criminal and educational investigations (Wikipedia, 2011). Information posted on SNS such as Facebook and Myspace have been used by police and other authorities to prosecute individuals. It has become increasingly common for colleges and universities to use social networking sites to investigate underage drinking and violations of campus policies. People have been discovered due to photographs of illicit drinking and party group events.
Facebook being a very popular online destination for students is being used by school administrations as source of evidence against student users but this has raised debate over the legality and ethics of using such a source (Wikipedia, 2011). Facebook’s Terms of Use (Facebook, 2011) specify that “the website is available for your personal, non-commercial use only”. Meaning that school administrators shouldn’t be harvesting such information and using it against students. However legal experts agree that public information sources such as Facebook and MySpace can be legally used in criminal, educational and legal investigations (Woo, 2005)
Table 3 details some examples of investigations that have been carried out with social networking sites being the key to the users’ conviction.
Figure 14 details some examples of investigations that have been carried out with social networking sites being the key to the users’ conviction.
Case |
Description |
Penalty |
Ref |
1 |
In October 2005, Pennsylvania State University police used Facebook to track down students who rushed the field after the October 8 State game |
Two Students charged with trespass. |
[1] |
2 |
In July 2009 a medical technician was arrested for taking pictures of a crime scene and then uploading these pictures to his profile |
Technician was fired and charged with official misconduct. |
[2] |
3 |
In February 2006 a 16 year old boy was arrested for juvenile possession of a firearm after police saw pictures that he had posted on MySpace. |
Convicted in April 2006 |
[3] |
4 |
In April 2007 a student was remanded and suspended from college after his profile picture showed himself with a vaguely threatening message underneath. |
Student was placed in psychiatric care. |
[4] |
Table 3: Criminal Convictions, 2011
There are arguments for and against using social networking sites as a tool within investigations and both are justifiable. SNS should be allowed to be used because it is resource on the internet which the user takes light heartedly, the user will upload photos and post comments without consciously thinking about the repercussions, and if this resource can be used to up hold the law and used as evidence to assure justice then it should be used. In contrast using evidence from SNS could prove to be unreliable and should not be used to decide someone’s fate. The amount of comments and uploads that are posted and are often just opinions or rumours a court shouldn’t be allowed to use them as evidence.