Teen Starts Social Pledge Campaign
11/18/2009 9:17:16 PM
Reported by Emily Lampa
Channel 13 Orlando
CFNews13
ORLANDO — In about six months, 17-year-old Bill Frank graduates from Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando.

But before that, he has a big goal — to have 1 million people log onto his Web site and take the Social Pledge. The Social Pledge is a promise to avoid using profanity and posting inappropriate images on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
“I have cousins and aunts and uncles on my Facebook as my friends and I can’t let them see my Facebook with kids commenting on my photos saying this and this, and beep this. So that’s why I started it,” Frank said.
But now that Frank is college bound, a big concern is also what university officials can find out about prospective students online.

Already, dozens of students at Lake Highland Prep have taken the pledge.
“So far, I mean I have positive feedback from pretty much everyone in the school,” Frank sad. “The faculty’s all excited.”
“Basically what that does is it keeps it in the back of your mind. You start to take responsibility for other people’s actions or hold them accountable for their actions if they’re signed on,” sad Brantly Clayton, who signed the social pledge.
In the three months since he launched the site, more than 100 people from Orlando to Missouri signed up.

Frank says the social pledge is not just for young people. Indecent behavior online could hurt anyone.

He uses former Miss California Carrie Prejean as an example of how inappropriate online activity can haunt you.

Years ago, Prejean reportedly sent nude photos and sex tapes to a boyfriend online. The images recently leaked onto the Internet and created a media fire storm.