New Policy

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while has probably realized that I am new to much of the "Internet" thing. I have said more than once that my original idea was to do a website that would contain an archive of the photographic material that I and others had collected regarding this issue, along with links to articles, etc: A reference work.

The blog was something I had never even thought about doing, and I only added one to the site after my daughter insisted "You need a blog." I wasn't quite sure why I (or anyone for that matter) "needed" a blog. But I did add one to the site and I am glad I did.

Because of my inexperience, I wasn't quite sure at the onset about how to handle comments. Initially, comments were unmoderated; we changed that after lengthy spam posts, intended to crash the whole blog, started to come in. Now, since comments are moderated, I have to make a decision about each and every one. After I published an analysis of the photos that were copied from Mercede Johnston's MySpace page, many readers have added to the discussion by reviewing MySpace pages of other teens.

These teens' pages, as I understand it, are public. They are open on the Internet for anyone to see. For a minor to have a MySpace page at all at some level has to be a decision made by the teen and the parent, and I believe it is the parents' responsibility to set guidelines for Internet usage by any child (thought it's quite obvious from the open and blatant discussions of alcohol and drug use as well as sexual activity, that many of these "Valley" teens have minimal supervision in their lives.) As part of the discussion some readers of the site have posted links to certain pages, discussing some teens by name.

In spite of the fact that the pages are NOT private, I have made the decision to no longer approve any comments that mention any teens, minor or not, by name, or provide links to specific pages. If readers wish to "poke" around on social networking sites, that's their decision, and if something is discovered on a page that is directly germaine to this discussion, I hope the reader will pass it on to me privately. People are also still free to post comments along the lines of "Wasilla high school students seem to party a lot," etc. But comments that mention specific young people by name will not be approved.

I believe that questions about Sarah Palin's pregnancy are a legitimate news story and because of that it is not possible to leave her own children out of it. Bristol's current pregnancy status is directly relevant because it is the primary way that Gov. Palin and the McCain campaign chose to prove that Sarah Palin is Trig Palin's biological mother.

But, moving forward, any investigations that readers wish to do on various social networking sites need to be kept off this blog.