Story Created:
Mar 28, 2008
Story Updated:
Mar 28, 2008
Web Site Dishes Dirt On College Students
George Mallet
WHITEWATER - The University of Wisconsin Whitewater campus is quiet during spring break. But when students return in April, they are likely to be talking loudly about a Web site called JuicyCampus.com.
The Web site features racy posts about students made anonymously by other students. Call it a bathroom wall on the worldwide web.
“It is pretty bad,” said junior Jordan Scrubbe after reading the dirty little post written about him. Still, this self-assured track star isn’t about to freak out. He’s taking the post with a sense of humor.
“When I found out about it, I kinda took it as a joke,” he said as he sat in his off-campus house. “I told all my friends and they thought it was awesome!”
But the posts written about women on campus are almost universally offensive, focusing on sexual habits and roommate squabbles. Such posts are raising questions about the Website’s legality.
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram is investigating Juicy Campus for allegedly violating consumer fraud laws. Milgram subpoenaed the Web site’s records and advertisers, saying it broke the state’s consumer fraud rules by failing to live up to policies posted on the site promising to remove offensive content.
Whether that legal approach will be successful remains to be seen. Meanwhile liable laws crafted for the print medium are not easily applicable to the Internet.
Juicy Campus posted a statement on the Web site saying that the site has not broken any laws and can not be held legally liable for the gossip posted by users.