Barack Obama warns of Facebook perils
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US president Barack Obama has warned teenagers of the dangers of putting too much personal information on Facebook and other social networking websites, saying it could come back to haunt them in later life.
The presidential words of advice follow recent studies that suggest US employers are increasingly turning to sites such as Facebook and News's MySpace to conduct background checks on job applicants.
Taking part in a question-and-answer session with a group of 14- and 15-year-old school students, Obama was asked by one pupil for some advice on becoming US president.
"Well, let me give you some very practical tips. First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," Obama said.
"And when you're young, you make mistakes and you do some stupid stuff. And I've been hearing a lot about young people who - you know, they're posting stuff on Facebook, and then suddenly they go apply for a job and somebody has done a search."
Obama referred several times to "mistakes" he had made when he was at school but offered no specifics. He has previously admitted to drug use when he was younger.
A survey in June by careerbuilder.com found that 45 per cent of employers used social network sites to research job candidates and that Facebook, which says it has 250 million users worldwide, was their site of choice.
Some 35 per cent of the employers surveyed said they had found content on the sites that had influenced them to reject a candidate. Examples included inappropriate photographs, information about the applicants' drinking or drug use, or bad mouthing of previous employers, co-workers or clients.
The Obama White House frequently uses Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to bypass the media and communicate directly to Americans.
- Reuters
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We have to remember, that sites like Facebook are very personal sites, and as such, people are likely to put up jokes, and write blogs. But is it unfair if such information is taken out of context by employers?
For example, if someone wrote "I like to get wasted every weekend" as a joke to their mates, wouldn't it be unfair for an employer to bar employment opportunities because they misinterpreted a joke? The fact that such candidates may not even be contacted to explain their joke makes it even more unfair in the employment process.
I think that having a face-book site is a good way of getting some job positions, but in sayig that you have to be carefull what you put up because their are some pretty dodgy people out there and you don't know what they could and will do once they have seen your face-book profile, so go for it, but be carful.
well, i think this article is very useful and very true. but i no for one thing is that people will never learn unless it happens to them. so good luck barrack obama...
in response to below. Or instead why not live a life that is worthy of employment and praise. win win situation if you ask me.
Why don’t people use this to their advantage, if they know that people are going to check up on them for future jobs then they could just make a sudo account that shows them to be all responsible etc, and only putting up respectable photos and not posting shocking stuff they did that weekend. Obliviously if an employer sees that you aren’t a boozed up teenager then ur in a better position to be employed.
Settings > Privacy Settings > Friends only. How hard is that?
Just remember if you login to Facebook to view peoples information you have also in fact agreed to the terms and conditions of Facebook when you logged in.
About 12 months ago I was tasked with employing 165 staff for a new hospitality business in the UK. After receiving the CVs of mostly young applicants for positions the first thing I did was look them up on the various social networking sites to get a better picture of their 'true' identity. Amazingly most applicants profiles were open to all to view and many did not even get an interview based on their photos and comments online. Was a much better way to gauge proper personalities and characteristics than a wooden CV!
i couldn't agree more
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Yeah well I've lost jobs over mild comments made on the internet almost 15 years ago long before Facebook and long before anybody gave any serious thought to this stuff. Unfortunately, I can't just throw a privacy switch in software for stuff that old. I understand the young are naive and social, but this is one piece of advice they should either heed, or their genes will die off. The internet is really like the Wild West, lawless gun fights, people getting shot in the back and the survival of the fittest.