Ethics of colleges spying on teenagers

Randy Cohen, the New York Times Magazine Ethicist, gives wacky advice to readers each week. Here is today's stupidity:

I interview high-school seniors who apply to my alma mater. I routinely Google these students and discovered that one posted information on his blog that reflects poorly on him. May I ask him about the blog? May I mention it to the university? Should it affect the score I give him? — Keith Lublin, West Bloomfield, Mich.

... You would not read someone’s old-fashioned pen-and-paper diary without consent; you should regard a blog similarly. Your reading this student’s blog is legal — he posted it voluntarily, and in that sense it is public information — but not every young person grasps this. Many unwisely regard their blogs as at least semiprivate. You should not exploit their youthful folly. ...

You would not read someone’s old-fashioned pen-and-paper diary without consent; you should regard a blog similarly. Your reading this student’s blog is legal — he posted it voluntarily, and in that sense it is public information — but not every young person grasps this. Many unwisely regard their blogs as at least semiprivate. You should not exploit their youthful folly. ...

UPDATE: Lublin checked with the university and was told not to ask the student about the blog but to include its URL with his report.

In essence, Cohen is saying that it is unethical to spy on the boy, but then endorses it anyway, and approves of secretly reporting on his snooping to the college that the boy might attend.

This is the worst possible answer. The boy has a right to know how he is being judged. He may have a good explanation for whatever is on the questionable web page, and the interview is the place to consider it, if it is to be considered at all.

I did my own googling, and apparently the college advocating the secret spying is the University of Michigan. It apparently also refused to be quoted for this despicable policy.