However, there is another type of footprint of which they may not be as aware; the digital one.
Social sites are filled with pictures of teens in engaged in questionable activities, and dressed in what passes for clothes – and that’s just the boys.
These days, a you has a chance to get “out there” on several fronts – website, You Tube, blog, Twitter, Facebook, Hi5, LinkedIn… the number of social sites is mind-numbing. Some, of course, usually cater for the older age-bracket; but you get teens who for some reason think it is ‘kewl’ to lie about their age, in order to be able to post their artwork or photographs on these sites.
What they look upon as ‘fun’ may come back to haunt them in the future- but the chances are they can never think that far. These days, it is a well-known fact that employers will put potential employees’ names through the search engines and well as in the “find people” on social sites in order to obtain details that may not be in the c.v.
They will scour names (and nicknames) of persons who are ‘friends’ of the applicant, on occasion, just to see what kind of people they are. If some ‘dirt’ on their wannabe employee crops up – well, that’s a bonus.
Just as Jennifer hugging granny and Robertina on a volunteer trip to Kenya will warm the cockles of anyone’s heart…Martina smoking a bong and Fiona dancing half-naked on a cube will brand them for life.
That is why teens need to be “socially responsible” at all times.
And here, it is useful to point out that despite the fact that a person may be careful to set his privacy settings to “friends only”, there is software around that ‘recognises’ people. In plain language, if a friend of your child posts a photo of her supine on a sofa, the worse for wear, there is no need for her to be “tagged” for her name to pop up.
And frankly, whereas sometimes it is done for a lark – sometimes this is done on purpose, to humiliate the person who cannot hold her drink or who misbehaves at parties while pretending to be Miss Goody Two-Shoes at school.
This is not a question of Data protection; even if a photograph is removed, you never know who has picked it up and saved it in the few minutes it was online, and what they plan to do with it.
The world has become a person’s oyster more than it ever was before. And whereas social media can be a blessing, it can also be a bane. It is enough for a teen to voice anger derision, racism, or other negative emotions in order to jeopardise a future job; once a statement is online it can never be removed. And the reputation of a person can be wrecked forever.
The fallout can be unexpected. The teen may not remember what he did on April 22, 2012 – but the internet will. This could have negative connotations for a person seeking entry to a prestigious college – or to someone applying for a job where he and two other applicants have the same qualifications, but only one of them has a tainted personal record as seen on the social site pages.
It is also important for teens to know that these days, when more and more applications are done online, both for colleges and for jobs that they have to select an e-mail address carefully. Bunnykins@hotmail, Sexyloa@gmail, and Kissablelips@yahoo do not inspire confidence in people who want diligent, conscientious employees.
It would be a good idea for teens to put their name in the search bars of different search engines, every so often and see what comes up. If it is possible, they can ask their friends to remove content they find they do not like – although they have to understand that the damage might have been wrought already.
Our teens need to understand that just because the internet is there, they do not need to use it to document every second of their lives.
