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By editorial@silicon.com, 14 November 2001 09:00

COMMENT When the couple behind FriendsReunited.co.uk hatched the plan for the popular contact site they were probably relying on at least one of three hypotheses proving true. 1. People will want to find out whether friends they've lost contact with have done well for themselves.
2. People will want to find out whether their enemies have failed miserably.
3. People will want to get back in touch with people they never got a chance to take behind the bike sheds and make up for some lost time. And so it would seem. There have been messages glorying in old classmates' failures while others play up their own successes. So too the latter hypothesis proved true with newspapers running reports of old schoolyard 'sweethearts' reunited via the site. However, a fourth reason to visit the site has also emerged which - judging by hasty attempts to rectify the problems - the creators didn't envisage. Reports have been appearing on the site naming and shaming teachers - accusing them of, and alluding to, a whole raft of crimes and misdemeanours. As such, the site decided, amid continued pressure from teachers' union the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), to remove the message boards (http://www.silicon.com/a49077 ). But was this the right thing to do? The writer of one silicon.com reader comment posted on the above story, thinks not: "Having been sexually abused by a teacher at a school in the early 1960s, my response to the teaching unions is along the lines of 'Thanks for closing ranks and calling me a liar when I tried to report it at the time'. I say let the reports go on - it may help to winkle out some of these paedophile perverts!" So where would advocates of free speech draw the line? Of course child abuse should never go unreported but it sets too dangerous a precedent to declare open season on all teachers leaving pupils past and present free to slander them unjustifiably. People will, rightly, point to instances of lynch mob style reactions to rumours and hearsay, especially where child abuse is concerned - that suggest FriendsReunited.co.uk did the right thing in removing the controversial message boards. Another reader supports the site's actions. He claims his wife has been persecuted by a pupil via the FriendsRenited.co.uk site accusing her of being a Nazi purely because of her German ancestry. (The fact that her Jewish family fled Germany suggests the pupil in question is not doing so well in his history classes.) No allegation of serious abuse should ever go unreported, but it must be remembered that when FriendsReunited.co.uk was launched it was to do just that - reunite friends. A responsible method for reporting such things is what is needed - allied to the correct authorities - but sadly it would never receive the media exposure that FriendsReunited.co.uk has enjoyed. We live in a society that is increasingly willing to turn to the internet to air its grievances - consider ihateMicrosoft.com, BTOpenwoe.co.uk or NTHellworld.com - and the authorities should take note.