Social Networking Issues and Resources:
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There have been numerous articles in newspapers around the U.S. about teens who have been arrested, denied admissions or even expelled from private secondary schools, colleges and universities because of content found in their social networks. Below are just a few links to articles that speak to this point and other issues associated with social networks. Though some of these articles date back to 2006 the problems these articles speak to have gotten worse. The illusion of privacy online has gotten worse and MORE people, not less, are viewing private pages. Facebook even sells access to private pages to companies who want to analyze how to better target teens with marketing! Methods for hacking private pages are posted online. However, we hear that the easiest method for anyone to gain access to "private" pages is simply to trick someone connected to a network of users.
Problems often arise because teens, who think their social network pages are private, post content that is illegal, offensive, disparaging, embarassing, hurtful, etc. It is content that often exhibits poor choices or bad behavior. Colleges admissions officers, potential employers, camp directors, police and others ARE finding them and using what they see to make evaluations or even arrests. Teens also need to keep in mind that though they may be vigilant about the people they let into their site, if others on their network are not so careful then their vigilance means nothing. Also, once that embarassing photo or harassing paragraph is posted on the Internet, it is there forever!
