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Ontario school board wants Facebook to remove anonymous ‘confessions’ page

Lakehead confessions page (Image courtesy Facebook)

Be careful what you post.

CBC reports that Lakehead District Public School Board wants Facebook to take down an anonymous confession page used by its students. These kinds of pages urge members to message their confessions to the page’s inbox, after which they are posted anonymously on the timeline.

The board is concerned that these confessions, which range from drunken adventures to publicly bashing teachers, are harmful to students and teachers alike. The concept is becoming wildly popular of late, with pages like these popping up all over Facebook, representing different schools.

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There are ethical concerns when it comes to the content of these confessions. In a time when bullying is in the public’s attention, as well as the Rehtaeh Parsons case, parents should be extra cautious about their child’s internet activity.

Then, of course, there is the Humber Epic Hookup Fails story. On the Humber College page, an anonymous poster may have taken the confessions a bit too far. He claimed he met a heavily inebriated young woman, took her to his place, where he and his roommate had sex with her. Whether it is true or not, which is something police are surely investigating, it goes to show the dark side to these pages, and the type of people that can use them.

[ Related: Toronto college, students, outraged over claims of student sexual assault ]

While some, if not most, of the people who follow these pages post innocent tales of drunken escapades and embarrassment, others may see it as an opportunity to come clean about crimes they may have committed. And what is concerning parents and staff is the fact that no one will know who they are.

These confessions are garnering a lot of attention worldwide, and it will be interesting to see how schools and Facebook deal with this, if they do at all.