Who’s a slut? Who are the hottest guys in school? Which girls will put out?

How old are we again?

JuicyCampus.com is a site where students from universities around the country can post “juicy” gossip about other people. Anything goes: others’ or your own sexual exploits, a public gripe against that girl in chemistry you hate or a gripe against your least favorite ethnic group.

Iowa State doesn’t have a section on the Web site yet, but the list of schools started with seven last fall and is now nearing 60, and traffic keeps growing with the national attention the site is getting.

When I interviewed Matt Ivester, the site’s founder, he told me he created the site because he remembered “the fun and hilarious stories” from college and thought people might want to share them.

He also said the site was created for entertainment purposes. The idea may have been innocent enough, but the actual site has turned into an electronic slam book. That’s so fetch.

And only too recently we’ve seen how entertaining vicious fibs and online harassment are. Remember Megan Meier from the news just a few months ago? She was a 13-year-old girl from Missouri who killed herself after getting hurtful messages on MySpace, supposedly from a teenage boy. Later, it was discovered that the messages were sent from her friend’s mother. It’s all fun and entertainment until someone dies.

The site could also affect students’ social and professional lives. A story on MSNBC.com mentioned a Cornell student who got a text telling him to look at JuicyCampus.com. His name was there next to an obscene passage about his alleged sexual exploits. He hopes no one will believe it, but now has to worry about it affecting his employment and how people view him on campus.

And here’s an interesting tidbit. JuicyCampus’ privacy and tracking policy says, “We do not track any information that can be used by us to identify you.” The header of their site claims “Always Anonymous.”

How, then, did a student at Loyola Marymount get arrested for posting threats of shootings on JuicyCampus? And why, in retort to the post “Juicy Campus is Traceable,” does JuicyCampus’s blog say “Uhhhh duh? Everything you do on the internet is traceable as long as you’re using private computer [sic].” They go on to say that if something serious happens, like threats of a shooting, they will give the police their server data willingly. Hmmmm.

But, the blog says, they won’t give up their server data for someone who’s upset over being called a name.

Ivester said he “doesn’t encourage people to post defamatory information.” However, the stories and name-calling that make up rumors and juicy gossip are usually defamatory.

A federal judge recently ruled that Internet service providers had to turn over records to help find those who defamed two law students on AutoAdmit.com. Those posting on Juicy Campus may not be as safe as they think.

How about hate speech? Actually, almost every post on the site is hate speech, particularly those with people’s names in the title or in the post, describing them as the worst person to walk the planet or as the biggest slut at Such-and-such University. But I’m talking anti-Semitism, homophobia and prejudiced comments against blacks and Mexicans, just from what I saw while on the site. “Too many blacks/mexicans [sic]?” was one post title. “The Jews ruin this school” is another that a story on MSNBC.com mentions.

Juicy Campus won’t be the only site like this to ever cross college students’ radar. But everyone should realize what a destructive environment a site like this creates. We’re too old to be playing “Mean Girls” with online burn books. And maybe, like Cornell student body president C.J. Slicklen said, “If we don’t get on there, it will die.” We can only hope.

– Bailey Lewis is a sophomore in English from Indianola.