Scandals, Rumors and Untraceable Deceit - Juicy Campus

Many of us have laughed at the infamous movies that seem to embarrass the actors and actresses for years to come such as Mean Girls, Clueless and Legally Blonde. Yet, as outrageous as it seems when the girls act unbelievably thoughtless when they gossip about their classmates – it is not far off from the reality of schools today. The unfortunate circumstance remains that the Internet is increasing the opportunity for all students (not just girls) to gossip and the uglier the gossip, the more popular reading that gossip becomes.

A new Website, Juicy Campus, is designed to be a place where students can go to a tailored, specific page that is all about their particular school and feel free to gossip about anyone, anything and remain anonymous. Matt Ivester, founder and CEO of Juicy Campus, values the anonymity of his site. “We haven’t had any major legal concerns since launch. We’re just the platform provider, so any legal issues would really be with the authors of the posts.” However, users of the Juicy Campus Website must not be oblivious to the fact that it will take more work than just signing below their nasty comment anonymously in order to be undetected.
I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel J. Solove, author of The Future of Reputation, a book which well worth reading if you are interested in the amazing transformation that the Internet has taken over the last few years and the problems with protecting its users. Solove explains that rumors spread on the Internet are going to be searchable and marked in history for eternity, thanks to the World Wide Web. An interesting point that he made is that people are recording their children’s lives in blogs, social networking sites and in pictures from the moment they are born. Essentially making it virtually difficult to hide anything from their past – The children of today are going to have a very different life than even the young adults have of this century. View Solove’s Blog.

The privacy and tracking policy on the Juicy Campus Website seems official and to the average user, may seem fault-proof. Not having to register for the site is nice but doesn’t mean you’re safe. The site does use cookies, so you will have to turn your cookies off or delete them every time you leave site. In addition, the servers do keep track of IP addresses – therefore, you’ll need to use an IP-cloaking service. Yet, I hope that the intelligent, advanced computer knowledgeable individuals of this world realize that there is still a way to track you down. And after ALL of those steps you had to take in order to anonymously post that some girl attending your university is really a man – was it worth it?

Evidently, there are mixed emotions about this site. There are Juicy Campus endorsers who are posting high quality content (not really) to the site as we speak. “This seems like a cool idea for a site. If a lot of students find out about it and start posting it might even rival Facebook as a way to procrastinate,” Brian Hastings says on the Cornell Daily Sun Website. Rivaling opponents argue that the site is pointless, dangerous and can not produce anything but negative results. Dr. Phil recently had a few girls on his show that were, in their opinion – joking, about pulverizing another girl. What seemed to the trash-talking girls as innocent, truly came back to bite them…and their families. The girls not only were expelled from school but their families are regrettably going to loose their homes after taking out mortgages just to pay for the skyrocketing lawyer fees. Sites such as Juicy Campus are allowing situations like this one, to become even more out of hand. When using Juicy Campus, you need to know that you can’t edit any original post. So if you are in a fight with your best friend or significant other – think twice before you spill their secrets. Juicy Campus claims that they don’t want you to change the gossip because others may reply with agreement to your original post and may or may not feel the same about the new – news. Occasionally, content gets removed from the website but it is rare. I quote Ivester by saying, “Once it’s out there. It’s out there. So be careful what you say.”

You have to wonder why students would take the time to do this, besides being immature. It isn’t for the online fame because of the sites anonymity. If students want to be an online celebrity, Juicy Campus isn’t it. If its popularity they are seeking, maybe they should play “Coolest Girl in School” recently featured by Gaming Today. Perturbing but true, it is to be malicious toward someone they know. Whether they are jealous, trying to get even or simply to be part of another’s downfall – students are participating and hundreds of university pages are being added each day. Juicy Campus puts the repercussions on the users and is basically untouchable.

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Scandals, Rumors and Untraceable Deceit - Juicy Campus