The issue of First Amendment protections for electronic versions of student publications is likely to become more pressing nationwide as more student journalists find their way onto the World Wide Web. The big question is: Once words are converted from newsprint to digital format, does their First Amendment status change? This research paper examines a narrower question: Do First Amendment protections granted to student print publications at public colleges and universities apply to their on-line counterparts?

   The research addresses that question in two sections: Part I examines the federal and state court decisions establishing First Amendment protections for student print publications and applies these to on-line student publications; Part II explores public university liability for libel and privacy invasion by the student press, two court decisions regarding on-line service liability for potential libel, and the implications of these decisions for universities controlling the content of on-line student publications.

   The First Amendment rights of students at public universities and colleges are well-established by federal and state courts. Where the publication has been created as a forum for student expression, college authorities may not exercise anything but advisory control over the editorial decisions of the student editors.

   Such publications, however, do not exist only in ink-and-paper form; more than 250 student newspapers are published on the World Wide Web. The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the World Wide Web as a publishing medium and refused to qualify the level of First Amendment protection granted to the Internet. On-line student newspapers and literary magazines would reasonably fall within the broad view of forms of student expression granted First Amendment rights by the courts and, therefore, should be afforded the same First Amendment rights as their ink-and-paper forerunners.

   Universities adopting a hands-on attitude could find themselves being held liable for defamatory and privacy-invading statements made in those on-line publications, while colleges that abide by the courts' rulings should be immune from such liability.

   To dilute the free speech and free press rights of student editors because newsprint has been converted to a digital format would seem to defeat the ideals expressed in dozens of court opinions. Indeed, considering the increasing popularity of on-line student publications and the World Wide Web, restricting the constitutional rights of those editors would threaten the student press' role in the marketplace of ideas that is a public university.