Red-Faced On The Web

Larry Magid Reports On How To Avoid Online Embarrassment

(CBS)  Kathy Sims, director of the Career Center at UCLA, knows of similar cases. "Students might not want to know that this is the case, but there are employers who are checking out what's there or listening to things that are reported to them."

Sims recalls a case in which a student residential advisor was fired after someone posted a picture of him drinking a beer in the residence hall where he worked. "It wasn't even his profile - he was on someone else's page," she said, noting that he was let go because UCLA officials "want people to know we have a zero tolerance for that type of thing."

As a former UCLA student, I know for a fact that the young man wasn't the first person to have a beer at a UCLA dorm. But when evidence of a rule violation was posted publicly, the university was forced to take action.

Neither Romanick nor Sims routinely surf the Web to find evidence on students or potential employees, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. "In general," says Romanick, "recruiters don't check online profiles, but instead they rely on interviews, background reference checks, and standard things that have been relied on for years. However, it is done from time to time."

Sims said that UCLA administrators don't routinely look at online profiles, but it could happen if "something was brought to the attention that maybe has merit." In fairness, she said, "We would first ask if it is for real, or could it be photo-edited."

I spoke with admissions officers at several large universities and small colleges; none said that they look at profiles on a regular basis. Officials at UCLA, University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of Missouri said that the sheer number of applicants makes it impractical.

Also, large universities often have specific admission criteria that don't factor in what's being said about people on the Internet.

Still, said Sue Alexander, dean of students at Wheaton, a private liberal arts college in Norton, Mass., "students need to understand who they are talking to on these sites and set their privacy settings accordingly." Alexander said that "we do not routinely look at them, but if students call attention to them to show off their high school activities, we might look and perhaps find something they didn't intend us to see."

Mike Sexton, Dean of Admission of Lewis and Clark, a liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, says information about candidates from Web sites would be "neat to know but not need to know." Like his colleagues at other schools, Sexton and his staff don't look at online profiles of candidates but "that doesn't mean to say that some young staffers at some colleges don't do that."

Several deans and admissions officers I spoke with said that younger office staff are more likely than older staffers to check out a student or candidate's online profile.

Just as among professionals, teens are mixed on whether Internet postings will affect them later in life. Jenny, a 15-year-old from California, says "I think that I monitor myself when I post items or say things because I know that some people could see it who I didn't want to, and that could lead to problems. I wouldn't post illegal activity because it might interfere with people's opinions of me and prevent me from achieving my goals."

Robert, 18, confidently throws caution to the wind. "I feel that if I do those types of things, it reflects my personality, so I don't care what's put up on the Web," he explains, "because I am who I am and it reflects that. And if people have a problem with me, then I wouldn't want to work with them or know them."

I felt the same way as Robert when I was his age.

But there were no web cams or social networking sites to preserve my youthful indiscretions for the ages.

Lucky me.

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A syndicated technology columnist for over two decades, Larry Magid serves as on air Technology Analyst for CBS Radio News. His technology reports can be heard several times a week on the CBS Radio Network. Magid is the author of several books including "The Little PC Book."

[michellem99-2009]

I am aware of the power of the word. But I have no control over someone in the public that I don't know or awsre snapping photos of me as I am legally blind and can't see them. I am 52. Don't we have freedom to have our say and the constution gives us that right.

[octavianfdlr]

This is Science?

[hypnotoad72]

People can change.

And if we had 'freedom of speech', any flapdoodle said on internet forums would have no relevance whatsoever. As too many people already say, with the internet one has to take anything with a grain of salt. Maybe people, employers or otherwise, shouldn't treat gossip sites as they would the Bible*. :-)


* Assuming these people believe in it, but that's none of my business and I'm not going to pry unless anybody asks.

[hypnotoad72]

People can change.

And if we had 'freedom of speech', any flapdoodle said on internet forums would have no relevance whatsoever. As too many people already say, with the internet one has to take anything with a grain of salt. Maybe people, employers or otherwise, shouldn't treat gossip sites as they would the Bible*. :-)


* Assuming these people believe in it, but that's none of my business and I'm not going to pry unless anybody asks.

[shoujoboy-2009]

Harmless is the word. Seriously if I go for a job or try to get a date when I'm 35 and something I said or searched when I was 21 comes into the conversation, I don't want to talk to you in the first place. People change and drudging up pointless tidbits from the past is pointless and just plain stupid. You know I might see the Mountain Dew ferret commercial on Youtube and comment how it is "Uber 1337" now and I seriously don't think I'll be embarassed when I'm 40.