A nationally recognized student and academic rights attorney told students last Thursday to be as vigilant online as they are offline.
    
In a talk organized by the Issues Committee, lawyer C.L. Lindsay spoke to a group of more than 30 students in the Cox auditorium.
    
“Would you put 50 pictures of yourself smoking weed up on campus property, or steal a DVD from Best Buy?” Lindsay said. “No, well don’t do it online either.”
    
Lindsay spoke at length about the need for students to be aware that the same laws and social standards that apply outside of the web also apply on the Internet.
    
Lindsay is the executive director and founder of the Coalition for Student and Academic Rights (CO-STAR). His organization helps students across America with legal problems and is, to his knowledge, the only free legal advice available to the college community.
    
“We get about 10,000 requests a month and are able to touch about five percent of them,” Lindsay said.
    
Lindsay’s talk was accompanied by a slideshow featuring his own action figures depicting his various areas of discussion.
    
One area of concern for students, Lindsay said, is the distribution of indecent images.
    
Lindsay warned students that over the age of 18 there are no laws to prevent the distribution of indecent images.
    
“Once an image is in the public domain it is virtually impossible to stop these images being spread,” Lindsay said.
    
Lindsay also warned against the online issue of “sextortion.”
    
He cited the case of 17-year-old Trevor Shea, of Mechanicsville, Md., who obtained indecent screen shots of girls in Indiana.
    
Shea then located the girls through Facebook and threatened to send the images to their entire friend list if they did not send him more images. After blackmailing several girls, Shea was eventually caught and is currently serving a 2- to 3-year jail sentence.
    
On the issue of social media, Lindsay warned students to be especially vigilant about their privacy.
    
“Have no expectations of privacy,” he said. “The fourth amendment’s reasonable expectation of privacy is based on an actual belief that the things are private, but this belief must be reasonable according to the law.”
    
Lindsay added that this is especially true for those students who live on campus.
    
“The burden of proof for criminal cases is usually around 75 percent,” Lindsay said. “But, for on-campus disciplinary hearings the standard of proof is around 51 percent.”
    
Lindsay explained that if you are seen online even holding an alcoholic product on campus property, or breaking any other rule, then you will be found guilty.
    
Lindsay told students about the case of Cameron Walker, former president of Fisher College SGA of Boston, Mass., expelled from the university for being a part of a Facebook group that targeted a police officer.
    
The group attempted to have a campus officer fired by provoking him using methods of assault. Walker was targeted as he was in an elevated position at the university, even though he had not even posted on the group.
    
Lindsay also added that beyond the boundaries of the university, 75 percent of recruiters admit to actively checking, and making judgments based on, individual social network pages.
    
“Would you walk into a job application and tell them that your primary interest is boobies?” Lindsay said. “If not, then don’t put that kind of thing on your profile, either.”
    
Lindsay also warned students to always have their security settings set to maximum and check them every time there is an update.
    
“Right now there are approximately 15,000 sexual predators online in America actively looking for their next target,” Lindsay said.
    
He told students not to make themselves a target by putting up provocative images, adding that profile photos should be kept as neutral as possible so as not to attract the wrong kind of attention.
    
“Watch out for pictures of where you live, know that smart phones GPS tag images and never post physical addresses online,” Lindsay said.
    
Finally Lindsay showed a gallery of convicted online sex offenders, asking students to remember their faces every time they decide to post something online.
    
“Also, don’t be afraid to get help if you think you are in trouble,” he said.
    
“He spoke about a lot of things that college students really need to know,” Maggie Hannah, senior in political science and Issues Committee member, said. “It was informative and entertaining.”
    
Kara Gallagher, senior in political science and Issues Committee member, explained that after Lindsay’s talk she was going home to update her Facebook security settings.
    
“The stories he mentioned about sexual predators online really touched home,” Gallagher said.