The viral circulation of a PowerPoint presentation detailing the sexual encounters of a recent Duke University graduate brings up a host of legal and social issues surrounding new media.
In response, Penn is taking steps toward raising awareness of privacy issues and their consequences. According to Executive Director of the Office of Student Affairs Hikaru Kozuma, OSA will collaborate with student groups, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center and college houses to “explore additional ways to share information and resources about rights and privacy with students.”
According to Communication professor Carolyn Marvin, the Duke incident illustrates the clash between “the need for privacy against people’s need for freedom of expression.”
Karen Owen, a 2010 Duke University graduate, created a slideshow with anecdotes and ratings for 13 of her past sexual partners. According to a Forbes blog post, Owen’s “unofficial senior thesis” was intended for three close friends. However, within days, it spread throughout Duke, onto blogs and into Penn’s clubs and classrooms.
“If you tell two or three people, it’s going to get out somehow,” said College junior Harshil Shukla, who received the presentation on Penn Masala’s listserv.
According to Marvin, “it’s not the activity itself that is so incredibly unusual,” but rather “the conditions of distribution and reception” that are more surprising.
“We might tell our friends private information, but without social media, we can be pretty sure young people across the country aren’t going to hear about it,” Marvin wrote in an e-mail. “With social media, those expectations are no longer so reliable.”
Law School Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs Anita Allen said the case presents the legal issue of “publication of private fact.” While Owen may not have intended the widespread distribution of the material, “her friends are just a vehicle of publication,” Allen said.
If the same situation were to occur on Penn’s campus, she said, the creator would be liable under the publication of private facts tort. The tort includes physical or electronic intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, portraying someone in a false light or appropriation, which involves using someone’s name for personal benefit.
Kozuma noted “ongoing resources” available to students to address issues of privacy and their repercussions, highlighting the University’s Office of Audit, Compliance and Privacy, the Vice Provost for University Life staff members and academic advisers.
Apart from invasion of privacy, another potential legal issue brought to light is intentional infliction of emotional distress, which refers to legal action taken for inflicting a “kind of distress which might cause [someone] to have to seek therapy or medical intervention,” Allen said.
A recent case of invasion of privacy currently under legal inspection occurred at Rutgers University late last month, where freshman Tyler Clementi killed himself after his roommate disseminated a web-based video of him having sex with another man.
According to Allen, students may find it “acceptable to publicize intimate sexual facts about people, but in fact these things do violate the privacy laws of the state.”
Such acts can also violate University honor codes. In 2005, Penn’s Office of Student Conduct considered disciplinary action against a student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science who photographed a couple having sex through a window in Hamilton College House, now Rodin College House. The student then posted the photographs on his personal website, leading to charges of violation of the code of student conduct, sexual harassment policy and the acceptable uses of electronic resources policy. The charges were later dropped.
While documentation and publication of sexual acts are not new phenomena in the college realm, there remains a level of uncertainty regarding their method of distribution — the internet.
“I think ordinary people, including college students, are struggling to understand whether or not the rules of civility, the rules of politeness, the rules of respect for others, have changed because of the internet,” Allen said.
