It's not a contract.

A contract is negotiated by two parties ... not dictated by one. And, no contract can have as language the ability of one party to unilaterally change the contract at any time.

That's what you should teach them.

Teach them it's all just a joke, and that if Facebook starts pasting your high school yearbook to porn pictures and distributing them, you can still sue them.

How would a contracts scholar interpret the Facebook response asking for the trust of their users? To what extent should individuals trust the corporation?

Facebook: Trust us

Contracts Scholar: LMFAO!

CNN: Under fire from tens of thousands of users, the social networking site Facebook said early Wednesday it is reverting to its old policy on user information -- for now.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/18/facebook.reversal/index.html

Suddenly, it's not a contract. It's just a "policy."

KJ, I appreciate your question in seeking to know what ‘contract scholars’ would think of the Facebook terms, which is something I have thought about myself, because I am unable to decipher them. Despite what people like Fedgovernor, who are easily amused, think or chose to laugh at (I had to look up the significance of “LMFAO” and found it most unsavory….but I digress)…. it is the contract scholar who dedicate his or her knowledge to solving and/or anticipating problems way before they even arise. I think both of your questions would stimulate the interests of a true contract scholar.

Also, I lack a formal legal education, but I do know legally the term “contract” is much more inclusive as Fedgovernor declares.

“A contract is negotiated by two parties ... not dictated by one.”

Really? Could I please forward you basically every contract I have entered into in my life as evidence that while they were contracts, I had little to no say in the terms? Try using any popular search engine on the internet for the term “contracts of adhesion” or “standard form contracts.”

Now, to my particular comment, I am worried about the effect of Facebook and young children who idly waste away their minds on this site claiming they “social networking” when they are really in isolation and behind a plastic keyboard. Will possibly damaging terms of site affecting them when they post their often inappropriate pictures on the site? I might be wrong, but minors cannot legally contract, so if in fact Facebook holds their information and possibly uses it, could minors sue regardless of any terms?

Anyone dumb enough to post their own photograph or other personal information on a site like Facebook deserves the consequences. Such persons may not regret the consequences. Cheers to them, but the whiners who remain have no call on the sympathy of the ever dwindling number of rational persons who inhabit this globe.