blocked to the max!!!!!! bebo

IRELAND'S college authorities have banned the website Bebo.com after they
discovered that more than half their computer resources were being used by
time-wasting students accessing the social networking site, rather than for
legitimate study.

With just six weeks to go before the start of crucial summer exams, anxious
students preparing for tests complained bitterly that they could not get near a
computer terminal on campus to complete revision or work on their theses.

The reason was that more than one out of every two campus terminals was being
used by students addicted to using Bebo - sometimes for hours at a time.

One college conducted an informal survey of their public access rooms where
students can log on to the internet at will, and found that out of nearly 70
computers, more than 40 were being used by students keeping contact with new
friends on Bebo.com.

NUI Galway and University College Cork have both put an outright block on the
website from all college computer terminals.

And the Sunday Independent has learned that the authorities at the country's
largest third-level institution, University College Dublin, are also
considering banning 22,000 students from accessing Bebo.com at Belfield and at
their other campuses.

From a standing start, Bebo has made astonishing inroads in Ireland - now being
used by 500,000 young people in the Republic.

Irish youngsters are part of a worldwide phenomenon of millions of young people
who have made it the fastest growing website in the world. Bebo is a free
online community with each member having their own personal page, but it's
largely a cyberspace meeting point for young people.

While its impact on young teenagers in Ireland has been clear for some time,
Bebo's popularity among third-level students in their early 20s was unknown
until college computer experts found that their facilities had become
extraordinarily busy.

Officially launched in July 2005 - just seven months ago - the social network
has more than 22 million registered members viewing over 850 million pages each
month.

Computer resources at many third-level colleges are stretched at this time of
year as students begin studying for exams. At NUI Galway access to Bebo was
restricted from university computers from March 10. A college spokesman
admitted the move was a direct response to request from students frustrated at
being unable to properly study for their exams because computer terminals were
busy.

"Since we took the action we have received positive feedback from students,"
said Director of Computer Services, Dr Kieran Loftus.

Dr Loftus said that the substance of the complaints from students was that they
were unable to access computer services to complete academic work.

Last week Bebo's chief executive Michael Birch told the Sunday Independent that
the site's success was all down to word of mouth. "We are waiting for the
official figures, but our own internal studies show Bebo can boast more page
uses a day than any other site, including the Google search engine," he said.

"We had predicted its popularity, but could never have imagined it would become
as big as it has."