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May 11, 2008 6:59 pm US/Eastern
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Student-Run Website Stirs Controversy At JHU
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
A popular student-run website is raising eyebrows at Johns Hopkins University.
Jessica Kartalija reports while designed with good intent, the site is stirring up controversy over many of its posts.
It started as a place where students could chat about classes, ask questions and trade stories. But the anonymous message board JHU Confessions quickly became a free-for-all where students could talk about anything from the best place to have sex on campus to who the hottest freshman is.
"It's been enormously popular. The basic design is that people can post what they want and their anonymity is protected. You have to log on to prove you are a Hopkins student but those are encrypted," said Andrew Mann.
Mann, a Hopkins senior, got the idea from a similar site at Connecticut Wesleyan. Since the Hopkins site launched in January, popularity has skyrocketed from 2,500 hits to more than 500,000 in April alone.
"The emails I get and most of the discussions I have with my friends are pretty positive. They like the site. They think it's entertaining and they think it's useful," Mann said.
There isn't a whole lot the university can do because it comes down to freedom of speech, but they would like to see JHU removed from the website.
"It's really something you are seeing everywhere in the Internet these days. People take advantage of the cloak of anonymity to behave badly, to be uncivil to each other. Really, I think it's unfortunate," said Dennis O'Shea with Johns Hopkins University.
Visitors can report posts they find offensive and the discussion may be deleted.
"We want it to be self-monitoring. The users sort of decide their own level of conversation," Mann said.
Mann graduates soon and will start a graduate program in Hawaii, but says he plans to keep the site going.
In addition to JHU Confessions, Mann has sites up and running at five other universities.
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