Here is a petrifying tale, a tale of the modern horrors that have befallen a young social media user in Minnesota. After rumors swirled that the then-sixth-grader had complained about a hall monitor on Facebook and engaged in a sexually minded conversation with a classmate, something awful happened: School officials and a local police officer demanded that the student give them her Facebook password.
She then had to watch as these various authorities rifled through her social media accounts. Riley Stratton, now 15, says that this was greatly distressing.
Watching adults peruse your Facebook? Watching adults rifle through the equivalent of your diary and all the notes everyone has ever sent to you and your social calendar, all illustrated with every ugly picture of you in existence? Distressing indeed.
Anyway, the ACLU took pity on her (they argued that her complaints about a mean hall monitor were free speech ) and the Minnewaska, Minnesota, school district had to give Stratton $70,000 as part of the deal. And hopefully, freedom forever to have a Facebook of one’s own.
