Children ‘naive’ on social media perils
THE majority of young people are ‘dangerously naive’ about how their social media activity could affect their job prospects, a cyber-security expert has warned.
Pat McKenna, who travels to schools on behalf of Childwatch.ie to speak to children about web safety, says online activity can be used to create profiles that may harm their future chances of employment.
The web expert says most young people are oblivious to the fact that Big Brother is very much watching.
They have no idea that the digital footprint they leave on the internet is being collected by researchers for online profiling, Mr McKenna added. ‘Everything you put up online gets scanned,’ he told the Irish Daily Mail. ‘With a lot of students we speak to, they’ve heard this before, but when you show them how you can be traced to a location and so on, how researchers work – not by using social media accounts, but by using apps that are designed to manipulate social media – what surprised a lot of them is the speed with which these apps can get back information.’
He added that the ‘types of information’ on individuals garnered often startles the youngsters he talks to.
Mr McKenna said that more young people need to be aware of their digital footprint – the information connected with their name online. This not only includes information they put out there themselves, but also information shared about them by others.
‘A lot of people think that their digital footprint is what they put up online about themselves,’ he said.
‘It isn’t. If a researcher wants to find out something about you, they will have a look at you, but they will have a look at the people around you.
‘There is a dangerous level of naivety out there.’
Mr McKenna said that social media use becomes part of a person’s brand when it comes to seeking employment.
He believes some youngsters are becoming aware of the pitfalls of oversharing on social media, but remains surprised by the large numbers who appear surprised about the potential reputation damage that can ensue when they speak openly online.
‘On a simple level, if you say I don’t drink and you are at a party and there is a photo of you online and you are knocking back a bottle of gin or something, it calls that aspect of your sales pitch into question,’ he said.
He said one profiling tool being used by employers is called Sentiment, a program that can scan 1,000 tweets by one person to find out how positive or negative they are.
‘Then you ask the question, “Do you really want to work with someone who is negative for eight hours a day?”’
‘This is a method used by potential employers to vet job applicants, and young people have no idea.’