Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 thinks traffic on overheated youth sites like MySpace.com and Facebook may have peaked. Citing a focus group run by Guy Kawasaki and Alexa traffic charts, he argues that non-conformist teens are both increasingly put off by the overdone "fad" and aware of the sites' safety risks. Certainly, content policing issues continue to trouble the sites. Particularly in Illinois.

It seems two separate Illinois school districts have caused a stir this week in their efforts to crack down on extra-curricular student postings. The Plainfield School District is attempting to expel a 17 year-old student who posted "innapropriate comments and vague threats" on his xanga.com site. The school district's move elicited the wrath not only the student's mother, but also the ACLU: "The district is going to take away the student's education for exercising his freedom of speech," said ACLU attorney Carl Buck.

Inspired perhaps by the Plainfield fracas, a high school Libertyville, Ill announced that it would require students to sign a pledge agreeing that "illegal or inappropriate" online behavior could be grounds for in-school disciplinary action. Not surprisingly, Slashdot readers are taking the ACLU line: "Libertyville? Yeah- right," commented one.