Your Online Persona Can Help or Hinder College and Work Prospects

Imagine this: You've spent your high school years taking the most challenging course work offered, juggling multiple extracurricular activities and preparing for and excelling in your SAT's − all with the hopes of getting into your dream college. But ultimately you are denied entry for something you had never considered would become a factor: the content posted on your social networking profile.

This can and does happen. Colleges and universities are turning to social networking sites to learn more about their applicants. A recent survey conducted by Kaplan of 320 admissions officers from the nation's top colleges and universities revealed that one out of ten had used an applicant's social networking site in making the admissions decision. The survey found the social networking site could either benefit or harm the applicant.

Specifically:

▪ 25% of those who reported viewing applicants' sites said that these viewings had a positive impact on their evaluation; while,

▪ 38% reported that the applicants' social networking sites had a negative impact on their admissions evaluation.

(Read more about the study in the Kaplan press release.)

Content that had negative impact on the admissions decision included party pictures, underage drinking, reckless behavior, and fighting.

In the real world, my children need my permission anytime they want to have friends over. I know when they arrive, when they leave, and all the activities that go on in between (usually because they're so loud that I can't help from knowing, or they are so bored that I am expected to help them 'find something to do').

In the virtual world, though, we don't always have the same ability to monitor our kids' online activities, and this is especially true in the case of webcams. Webcams pose a significant threat to online safety because they can allow virtual strangers to peek inside your home, almost as if they were looking through a window. If children aren't taking the right precautions, outsiders can potentially see how they are dressed, what they look like, what they're doing and, just as with pictures, they can learn a lot about your kids from what is within view in the background.

Does your child have a webcam? Before you answer take a good look at your computer monitor or laptop because they are now being built-in and are so inconspicuous you could look right over them (especially with the newer Mac laptops). And, if they do, do you know how the camera being used?

Privacy settings allow users to determine who can see their profile, or portions thereof, on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. They are powerful tools in helping to protect your teen's information, including blog entries, videos and pictures.

Most social networking sites offer a default privacy setting. Younger users are typically defaulted to private whereas adults are defaulted to public. The default setting helps protect users who may not fully understand the risks of sharing information online with people they don't know. On some sites, users who are changing their default setting from private to public are presented with safety messaging alerting them to the risks of making their profile public. This messaging helps them to make an informed decision.

The video phenomenon is here and it's not going to fade away anytime soon. If anything, it's going to become an integral part of our children's self expression on the Internet.

Think about it - one the most popular TV programs among tweens today is a about a young girl, who along with her friends, produce a popular online show. Within the TV program they solicit the real world audience to send in their own videos in hopes of having them highlighted, either on TV or online. And, to make it easy for them, they are marketing branded camcorders that plug directly to the computer for easy upload!

If your child is sharing videos on the Internet, there are two things you and they need to consider:

1. What is the focus of the video?
2. What information is revealed either directly or indirectly in the background?

Have you tried talking to your teen about how the Web is permanent and how the things they post online could come back to haunt them in the future? Do you get a blank look or a standard "Yes, Mom" response that you know means your teen hasn't taken what you've said seriously?

Please, keep at it. Kids need to learn at an early age that the Internet has become the world's electronic archive, and once photos are posted online, they can persist there forever. Your teen daughter may not care today that a friend posted a photo of her on Facebook in a provocative pose, but she will likely care later if that photo pops up in a Google search conducted by a future college recruiter or prospective employer.

Sometimes, tasteless photos have even been used by the justice system to demonstrate a defendant's character or state of mind. These are extreme examples to be sure -- most teens aren't involved in crimes -- but they help demonstrate how online photos have had a real-life impact for shortsighted kids:

Criminal prosecutors have recently begun searching for evidence on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook that enables them to pursue harsher sentencing against people they've prosecuted. In several cases, prosecutors have found incriminating photos of defendants in DUI cases -- many of which had resulted in serious injury and/or death -- to secure longer prison sentences.

Take the case of 20-year old Joshua Lipton. While awaiting sentencing in a drunk-driving case where a woman was seriously injured, prosecutors obtained pictures posted on Facebook of Joshua drinking and wearing a jailbird costume for Halloween -- just two weeks after his accident. Prosecutors used these pictures as evidence that Joshua was unremorseful for his actions. The result: a prison sentence of two years.

Talk to your kids about stories like these, and discuss their reactions. It's a good bet that if you share other stories as you hear about them, reality will begin to sink in: Once you post something, it exists forever. Even if you try to delete it, someone else may have already copied it and posted it elsewhere. The Internet is forever. Think before you post.

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