Privacy commissioners warn teenagers (and everyone else) about Facebook and MySpace

TEENAGERS should think twice before posting personal information and photos on the internet, as they might come back to haunt them, privacy experts warn. Young people risked losing jobs or being embarrassed by teachers and relatives viewing party pictures or sexually explicit images uploaded on social networking websites, Victoria's Privacy Commissioner Helen Versey said.

Ms Versey and privacy commissioners from the Asia-Pacific region and Canada will today launch "Think before you upload", an animated, online video warning young people of the dangers of documenting their life on the internet.

(It's a pretty good video: http://www.privacy.vic.gov.au/dir100/priweb.nsf/content/AAFC731C1B055D91CA2575A80009DC4A?OpenDocument )

"Young people and others send information to social networking sites, but don't think where that information might end up," Ms Versey said. "When you put information online, do you really want some people, like employers, future employers or even relatives, to see it?"

She said that while privacy laws required Australian companies operating social networking sites to protect personal information, people could not sue for breach of privacy if someone forwarded or viewed items on their sites.

"It's everyone's responsibility to protect their own privacy in cyberspace," she said.

Internet safety expert Robyn Treyvaud said even though sites such as MySpace and Facebook allowed users to permit only their friends to view their personal content or chat online, not even that information always remained private. It could be copied and forwarded to other people, she said.

Party photos and videos hastily posted online left teenagers particularly exposed, as they could be immediately copied to YouTube, allowing millions of people worldwide to view them. The images could also be viewed years later.

Employers frequently search for a prospective employee's name through Google and Facebook, rejecting those with seemingly inappropriate cyber profiles, which might not be a true reflection of the person's skills and personality.

Ms Treyvaud said: "People used to say, 'You are what you eat.' Now, it is: 'You are what you upload.' "

In the US, there have been several cases of high school students rejected from entry to college based on their profiles in cyberspace. One US teenager committed suicide after her boyfriend circulated on the internet an explicit picture she had sent him.

"We are not saying to kids, don't go online," Ms Treyvaud said. "Do it, but be very mindful about what you share, that it's there forever, because nothing is ever deleted from the internet. The minute you hit 'send', you have lost control of your piece of data."

More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/web/social-site-warning-for-teenagers/2009/05/05/1241289177088.html