Comment: There may be trouble ahead

 

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Posted on 16 Jul 2007 at 14:45

The pictures weren't particularly revealing, nor were they intended to shock. But last week a collection of images posted innocently on American beauty queen Amy Polumbo's Facebook website were used in a sinister attempt to blackmail her.

The pictures weren't particularly revealing, nor were they intended to shock. But last week a collection of images posted innocently on American beauty queen Amy Polumbo's Facebook website were used in a sinister attempt to blackmail her.

In the end the 22-year-old, who is the reigning Miss New Jersey and hopes to go on to compete for the title of Miss America, was allowed to continue in a role that demands a blemish-free background as well as stunning good looks.

But there's more to this story than a sordid tale of blackmail that ended happily ever after. The incident highlights huge potential problems that the users of such social-networking sites could be storing up for themselves later in life.

It may not come down to the nightmare of blackmail, as in this awful case, but deeply personal information has a habit of getting out, especially when given a helping hand.

If social networking was around when I was a kid, it may well have been an issue for me. I'm not sure I can remember any particularly sordid details from my past, but there's no telling what might have happened if a few pictures and details of a particularly drunken party had found their way into the laps of my potential employers after I left university. Although some would say breaking into journalism might benefit from the revelation of a colourful past.

In fact, with employers and headhunters increasingly searching these sites as a primary source of information when recruiting, what may have been posted many years ago 'just for fun' could have long-term consequences for users' careers.

What can be done to protect youngsters against the perils of too much exposure, though? It would be all too easy at this stage to blame those who run the websites. And to a certain extent they should be working harder to warn members of the potential dangers of too much information.

But the real key is education. Rather than banning the likes of MySpace and Facebook from the classroom, schools should be embracing social networking sites, including them in the curriculum, using them as inspiration for projects and teaching children how to use the technology wisely.

Perhaps Gordon Brown's new plans for flexible schooling will allow teachers to escape from the restrictions of a system that sees courses that are out of date before term even starts. Let's hope so, because our teenagers desperately need it.