As Facebook becomes the new means of mass communication among US teens, new questions about propriety have come up. Is it ok to post embarrassing pics of your friends? What about pictures of friends smoking or drinking underage?

So I have another one: When is it ok to post pictures of cadets engaging in unprofessional behavior - wearing egregiously improper uniforms, flipping off the camera, etc.? What if the photos are visible only to your friends? What if they are visible only to your friends in CAP? Is this still a "PR nightmare" for CAP? Who is responsible for policing such behavior?

IMHO, no.


Are you wanting them to get in trouble?

So I have another one: When is it ok to post pictures of cadets engaging in unprofessional behavior - wearing egregiously improper uniforms, flipping off the camera, etc.?[/quote]
Never?


IMHO, makes no difference.


See above.


Probably.


Every member of CAP. We're all in this together. It comes across to me as an Integrity issue.

Kids will be kids. But we, as CAP members, need to meet a higher standard. We are all members of a team, and should do things that are good for that team. Every single public picture of a CAP member in uniform represents not only the individual, but the organization as well. Why do you think that we no longer have the goofy uniform threads going - they poorly represented CAP to the non-members that viewed them.

The answer to all the questions above is "never" - no discussion, never.

As soon as something is posted publicly, even semi-publicly, you lose control of its use.

And those people you call your "friends" today, may not be tomorrow and now they have a whole folder of pics to use as they please.

Its bad enough to engage in the behavior, don't give anyone the evidence as well. You might be surprised how quickly one of those silly semi-gang signs, or an inappropriate photo will get you put on the "no" pile when applying for a job, school, or something else you really want.

As a professional technologist, I am considered somewhat of a Luddite by many of my colleagues because of my disdain for this social networking nonsense. In my personal experience, very few of the so-called "magical contacts" that these services make could not been achieved through more standard means, and frankly how many of us, really, need to re-connect with someone from 25 years ago who couldn't be bothered to stay in touch some other way?

I do, however, know of plenty of horror stories where these services have wrecked relationships, careers, and personal lives.

A VP at a former employer once described these services to me in a very apt way "Kids with guns - lots of power, and no idea how to use it responsibly..."



...you have no idea how intensely sad that sentence makes a lot of people...

Now, I have to go yell at some kids playing on my lawn...

Short answer: typically not, but it does depend on how embarrassing it is. Example: One of my friends on Facebook made the comment that making her status updates in the third person were very "Elmo-like". So, as a joke which I told her a head of time I was going to do, I took her head and put it over Elmo's and posted it and showed it to her. She took it as a joke and I guess everyone else didn't care that I had so much free time to do that... Was it ok for me to do that? I believe so. I even think she used the pic as her profile pic for a while.

However, if I had another photo of another friend completely drunk and kissing a the pole of a street light... One, I will probably be given some grief as to why I decided to take the photo in the first place which I rightly deserve... but that's not what I should post on Facebook even if I made it so that only I and my friend could see it. Why? Because it's probably not going to stay that private. Someone hacks into our accounts or finds my computer while I'm still logged in on Facebook etc.

Although, I think you meant embarrassing meaning completely humiliating, causing them to think of suicide, etc.



Honestly, if you or your friends are involved with underage smoking or drinking and then take photos of it... and then think about posting those photos on Facebook... you and your friends are not too bright and most likely deserve the job loss or other consquences of you action.



Never, IMO. Never, even if they are visible only to your friends. As the saying goes: "“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” --Ben Franklin (Source).

And yes, it is still a PR nightmare for CAP because either it will get out to the general public or the people who posted the egregious photos will take and post more which leads to an even greater change that at least one of the photos will reach the public.

As for policing the behavior, the Knowledgebase has answers: Seniors and Cadets

The message is fairly clear: Don't do anything inside or outside CAP that will reflect badly on CAP, and if you find out someone is doing that... report them.

Although, a little , I am reminded of this news story I read just a little while ago.

Edit: Corrected some errors and added the news story stuff

So where do you draw the line? What is bad enough to prompt a reprimand? And who should do the reprimanding?

And no, I am not preparing to flame some poor cadet, I am just interested in hearing how cadets view this issue.

Obviously stuff that would be offensive even if they weren't in a CAP uniform are over the line, i.e. flipping off the camera. In the case of someone in uniform flipping off the camera and then that photo gets posted on the web, two people need to be reprimanded: 1. the person in the photo and 2. the person who posted it, which in some cases, could be the same person. As for who should do the reprimanding, it should be a superior, someone in their chain-of-command. For cadets, likely there Deputy Commander for Cadets or Squadron Commander. Senior Members, their direct supervisor in most cases.

Although we can reach a "gray area" with uniform issues. If someone posts a photo of a cadets whose rank insignia is 1/32nd of an inch off... well, no biggie. Now another photo gets posted of a cadet who's ribbons in the incorrect order (meaning two ribbons need to be switched, nothing more), a little chat with the cadet telling him his ribbons are out of order and to switch them solves the issue. IMO that can be done by anyone as long as it’s done tactfully and politely. Finally, a First Sergeant gets a photo posted of him wearing the infamous whistle, an ascot, an overly flashy cord, insert some more blingy items... well, a good talking to should be done to the cadet and whoever posted the photo.

Most of the uniform issues can be covered if A. we make sure we’re teaching people how to correctly wear the uniform and B. making sure PAOs or other people with photos at events/meetings know not to post a picture of someone wearing the uniform incorrectly.

As for the other stuff, there's cadets acting like cadets (read: kids) and then there's cadets acting like morons. Like photos of cadets making a funny face for the camera or trying to look "cool" for the camera, stuff that doesn't exactly scream professional... I tend to roll my eyes and mutter "dorks" under my breath and move on. There are some of those photos that begin to creep towards the line, but you can just sit the cadets down and say, "What you did was ok, but let's not got posting the pics on MySpace, mmkay?"

However, photos of cadets (read: morons) smoking pot in uniform, playing beer pong, etc defiantly cross the line and those cadets should get a good talking to (especially if the stuff in the photos are illegal) and the photos should be removed.

This is a very complex issue that, as a society, we will be grappling with over the coming decade or longer as technology continues to develop. Right now, our moral compass is lagging behind on these issues. It is the teenagers and young adults themselves that are having to create the social norms based on limited experiences on these issues specifically and in life generally. Normally, it is the older generations that create these types of social norms and generally they end up being more conservative than what the younger generations would come up with because the older generations have seen more of what can go wrong in life.

This is a problem that's quite a bit larger than CAP. However, as adults that interact with a wide range of teenagers, we are a bit better placed than most parents are in understanding the issues involved. We have the ability to gain a greater amount of experience in a shorter amount of time simply because we are interacting with more teenagers than most parents do. As an example, I have somewhere over 30 Facebook friends that are cadets. I will bet that most parents aren't friends with 30+ friends of their children. That's a great benefit we have towards helping determine the proper norms associated with online social networks.

In a conversation I was having with my cousin last week, he was saying that there are a lot of pictures on Facebook where he has his hand behind his back. He does this in order to keep pictures of him drinking off the internet, he is normally holding a glass in that hand that goes behind his back. (He does this even though he's in his mid-20s and not doing anything wrong, he just doesn't want pictures of him drinking online as it presents the wrong image.) I have the same concern, but take a different tactic and try to avoid having my picture taken altogether. As soon as somebody else has a picture of you, it's impossible to know what they will do with it. While it might not be right for them to post it publicly on the internet, there is enough debate surrounding these norms that there can't even be an expectation they won't post it.

It is up to each person to protect themselves and their online identity. This starts by being aware of what's going on around you and who is taking pictures that might be harmful in the future.

As adult mentors of teenagers, it's important for us to ensure cadets understand the impact on their lives of what they do online. This is just like any other expectation we have for cadets, first they need to understand what the expectation is before they are punished for not meeting it.

As far as my expectations for cadets that I know: if cadets use a picture of them as their profile picture, I expect them to represent CAP in everything they do online; I expect cadets to represent CAP well whenever they are doing something CAP related online (on CAP related pages, interacting with other CAP members, &c); I expect cadets to not discuss or show anything illegal online even if they aren't directly linking CAP to their activities. For senior members, my expectations are a little bit higher. If the senior member is friends with any CAP cadets on Facebook, I expect them to present the same type of image they present at squadron meetings. I understand senior members have personal lives that they might not want to share with cadets at a meeting, if that's the case, they shouldn't be sharing it online either.

With all of that said, I still have cadets posting things on Facebook that are clearly inappropriate and don't provide a good example to other cadets. I haven't yet figured out what to do when that happens. Although, I'm thinking about suspending a cadet based on his online activities if he doesn't change his behavior.

The AF worries about Facebook too, as this article I stumbled over today reveals. Their concerns mirror the ones in this thread in some places and differ in others.

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123161206