Facebook Photos: Your Delete Doesn’t Mean "Delete"

“Even if you delete incriminating photos on your Facebook profile, the company is keeping them accessible to anyone online for up to 30 months.

The social networking site admitted it had been keeping deleted photos for a “limited” amount of time.”  the age.com.au “Facebook keeps ‘deleted’ user photos for years by Ben Grubb.

Are you talking to students about the un-deletability of files?

We talk about how important it is to allow kids to fail. The problem with social media is a zero tolerance for failure. You mess up and your online presence or even employability may be gone forever. Just ask the Burger King sink bathtub guy or Steven Slater from Jet Blue Airline employee who flamed at passengers and had several videos go viral.

We use pencils when we want to let the kids erase and start over, but the Internet is most definitely in huge Sharpie permanent ink.

This brings up the point of taking kids into safe places with us where they can learn. Again, we have to examine the terms and conditions of those spaces to see if they are more responsible than facebook with their policy on photos, etc. I have, however, been hearing GREAT things about Edmodo and what they are doing in the educational space. My friends here in Maine are raving about them and their new interface and I plan on going back into the space for another look.

Some places we can’t afford to let kids fail and need to help and guide them as they are learning.
Bring social-media-like spaces into schools and create educational network so that all children can understand how to use these tools, not just those who have Internet at home.