The First Amendment rights of students at public universities and colleges are well established by federal and state courts. Where a publication has been created as a forum for student expression, college authorities may not exercise anything but advisory control over editorial decisions of student editors. On-line student newspapers and literary magazines would seem to fall within the broad view of forms of expression granted these free press rights by the courts. Hence, the growing number of on-line student publications should be afforded the same First Amendment rights as their ink-and-paper forerunners. Universities adopting a hands-on attitude, despite consistent rulings by the courts granting editorial control to student editors, could find themselves being held liable for defamatory and privacy-invading statements made in those publications, while colleges that abide by the courts' rulings should be immune from such liability. However, Congress has muddied the First Amendment stream by treating the Internet--at least for the purposes of controlling obscenity and indecent language--as a medium to be regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. It may be that public universities will be forced to oversee and punish students for violations of the Communication Decency Act. That means that student editors could find themselves able to publish certain materials in print but not on-line. It can be argued that the rationales for allowing greater governmental restriction of broadcast media do not apply to on-line student publications. (Contains 121 references.) (TB)