Online Networking: Private or Public?

A friend's teen daughter recently began a new job. After the first week or two, her immediate supervisor revealed to her that the company had reviewed her MySpace and Facebook profile pages before making a job offer to her. The teen was shocked. Should she have been?

Is your employer online? How about your prospective employer?

Do You Have a MySpace, Facebook, Yuwie or YouTube Account?

MySpace, Facebook, Yuwie, YouTube, and similar sites are open to public viewing. Anyone who wishes to set up an account (usually for free) can quickly access millions of individual profile pages.

Individuals post graphics, photos, videos, music and even written material for other users to view and hear. Most members display their friends' thumbnail photos, as active links to their friends' profile pages. Many also allow friends' and visitors' comments to appear on their own profile pages as well.

Here is what this means, just in case any question still exists. Anyone who wishes to do so can easily access an individual's profile page.

Online Equals Open.

Parents, teachers, school administrators, college admissions staffers, prospective employers and even pastors are free to peruse your page. Whether you like it or not, and whether you agree philosophically with the idea, these folks are at liberty to look at anything you post online.

Incidentally, the same freedom exists for material you publish in a blog, on a writing site like Associated Content, in a website guest book or in other online communities. If you put it out there on the internet, you simply cannot expect folks not to view it.

Outside the office, employers are individuals as well. They possess the same rights to the internet that you do, and they are quite likely as capable of surfing as you are. It would be naive to assume such folks could observe your online postings without it affecting their opinions about your personal character and professionalism.

After all, students have been expelled from school, based on photographic or videotaped evidence they posted online. Employees have been removed; academic scholarships have been denied; candidates have been outvoted; and engagements have been broken.

If it's online, do you really believe people will not see it? Can they see it without making a personal judgment?

How Can You Preserve Confidentiality of Your Online Presence?

Most social networking communities and other websites offer several simple safeguards. You can certainly opt to preserve your privacy, if you set your account up with these restrictions.

Set Your Profile to Private.

In most cases, you can go into the account settings or security areas to set your profile preferences. Usually, you have the option to make your page available only to your accepted friends. If you are careful about choosing your online friends, you will know exactly who has access to your page and postings.

Review Comments Before Allowing Them to Be Posted on Your Page.

Who needs to be surprised by racy, raunchy or even mean comments that may be posted by other users? Most communities allow you to preview all comments before they appear on your page. You can accept or reject these, Routinely, user accounts are hacked, so that comments and bulletin begin appearing that did not actually originate with the identified user. Employing the pre-approval setting will protect you from this peril. You can catch such postings before they are made public.

Whether you like it or not, folks may form opinions about you, based on comments your friends post on your page. In addition, they may visit your friends' pages to see what sorts of people you count as worthy of your friendship.

Watch What You Post on Other People's Pages.

Although you may find that off-color joke, that party photo, or that cartoon extremely funny, you may not want to post it publicly. Send it in a private message, if you must.

Remember, everything you post is placed next to your avatar (thumbnail photo) and screen name, so it reflects on you. Although your friend may find the comment hilarious, your prospective employer, teacher, youth group leader, or in-laws may not.

What About Club Penguin, Club Pogo, MiniClip, WebKinz and Similar Gaming Sites?

Many of these kid-friendly sites have popped up recently. Usually, users set up a pseudonym, which is often attached to a cartoon avatar or an icon standing for an actual toy animal or character. Most of these sites do not permit revelation of users' real names or identifying information. As a general rule, they do not allow profanity, and they usually have no means of uploading graphics or photos. The dangers are greatly minimized, so these sites are white-hot popular with younger children.

Still, users are advised to be careful about the material they post in chats and comments. Memberships can quickly be canceled for inappropriate behavior.

Here's a simple rule of thumb: If you post it, it's public. Your postings can affect your paycheck!