There is little doubt that college guys are checking out college girls and vice versa but a new website that allows Boston University students to rate each other online is raising questions about privacy and respect.

The newly launched RateBU.com allows Boston University students to log on and vote for the hottest girl or guy on campus. The pictures are uploaded by students, many of them swiped from the online public domain. The site suggests using photos from Facebook.

Creator Justin Doody, a BU sophomore, got the idea for the site from the movie The Social Network. The film is a drama about the creation of Facebook and how the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, brought the social networking site to fruition. In the movie Zuckerberg first creates a site dubbed Facemash which allows Harvard students to rate female students.

Doody is shocked at how quickly the RateBU site gained popularity and media attention.

“I expected some people to find it interesting. I knew it would be a little bit controversial, definitely didn’t expect it to take off this fast,” said Doody who admits reaction has been mixed. “I have had a lot of positive feedback. A lot of people do realize it’s just a joke, guys and girls. There are some people that take it kind of extreme but I am honoring take-down requests and I have plans to change the site in the future.”

He says the site is not meant to be malicious or to cause hurt feelings. Doody only ranks the top 25 and the photos are posted by users which he argues is legal.

“Right now they all come from Facebook. It’s a gray area of the law. Facebook says things on the site about when you upload a photo you loose some of the rights to it and another thing is all the content on the site is user generated so part of the legality falls on them.”

Students are giving mixed reviews of the site. Some are outraged.

“It’s disgusting,” said freshman Sasha Goodfriend. “Yeah, it’s really degrading,” added fellow freshman Anya Golkowski.

“I really hate it. I’m really embarrassed that I go to BU because somebody would make that. I can’t speak more harshly about it,” said Goodfriend.

Other students say it’s not a big deal.

“I don’t think it would be demeaning,” said student Nate Ashcroft. “It’s think it’s more like it would be flattering.”

Boston University officials point out the school did not create and does not control the site but they are aware a university student created it. They say all students are expected to abide by “the Code of Student Responsibilities” and will not comment on disciplinary matters. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore released a statement saying in part:  “The opportunity to post anonymous content online creates a constant challenge to the environment of civility we work hard to maintain. We encourage all of our students to respect each other and act responsibly.”

“It’s actually very well settled that this type of activity is sexual harassment,” argues attorney Wendy Murphy who believes the university should immediately take action.

“It’s called RateBU. They’re BU girls and you have to have a BU email address in order to log on. That becomes the school’s responsibility because the effects of the harassment are occurring on campus,” said Murphy.

One student, who would only share her first name, Melanie, says it’s not a big surprise that photos posted online have been reposted on another site. “It’s demeaning but they put these photos on Facebook for the public to see… if they put it on there for everyone to see then it’s not illegal.”

“If they put it on the internet then anything can happen,” said Melanie who expects the controversy to end before too long. “It’s just another website. Websites come out all the time and they’re so common. It will pass as well.”