Anonymous Brandon University ‘confession’ page shut down

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This article was published 11/03/2015 (4140 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — One of Brandon University’s anonymous online “confessions” pages appears to have gone offline.

The page no longer appeared in a Facebook search Wednesday afternoon.

Tom Brophy, BU’s associate vice-president and university registrar, said universities across Canada have their own confessions pages and BU’s had been on their radar for a while.

However, he said it’s difficult for the university to do anything to help students until they come directly to them with a complaint.

Without getting into specifics, Brophy said administration is delving deeper into some comments that were previously posted on the page. He also stressed these types of pages have no direct affiliation with BU.

“Therefore, our scope of control is very limited,” Brophy said. “Depending on the situation … some of them are bullying and some of them … are questionable behaviour and comments.”

The page previously allowed students to anonymously submit a comment or confession, which the page’s anonymous creator would post online.

Before it was shut down, roughly 800 confessions had been posted for more than 3,000 followers to see.

A second BU “confessions” page, which popped up near the end of last year, has posted six comments to 82 followers and doesn’t seem to be gaining momentum.

Brophy said students need to understand the importance of being respectful and responsible online.

“Their online identity is not completely separate from their real identity… students need to be aware that those actions online do reflect them as a person.”

BU is currently revising its respectful environment and social media policy, which Brophy said will cover aspects of cyberbullying.

 

— Brandon Sun