Last week, I hunted around the web, searching for a site where someone had gathered the terms of service for all the web’s most popular sites. Sadly (and surprisingly for the internet) I could not find what I sought. I decided to do it myself and created the Terms of Service blog: http://termsofservice.posterous.com/
The purpose of this blog is to inform users of social networks and web services about the terms of use of such services. The blog assumes no legal authority in this area and merely attempts to collect extracts regarding terms of use as a precursor to users exploring such terms in greater depth e.g. considering their implications. It’s not meant to scare teachers, but rather to empower them. I have selected extracts relating to user age and to content, as these seem to be the two areas that cause the most confusion, as well as provide the greatest risk to privacy and intellectual property.
It’s not the answer but it’s a start, and if it leads to a school or two pausing to discuss how they can use such sites, maybe it will be time well spent.
What do you think? Is there a need for something like this?