Oct 22, 2007 3:51 pm US/Eastern
Your Kid's Online Site Could Get You In Trouble
by Paula Ebben
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
We've all heard the stories of teenagers who post too much information about themselves online and get into some type of trouble. But experts say kids are now getting their parents into hot water too with some of the information they are posting.
"Not only do I have to live with my nagging mom, my dad does drugs."
Those are the kinds of online postings Portsmouth, New Hampshire police Sergeant Corey McDonald is seeing more and more of these days. You can call it parental dirty laundry. "Whether we are talking about dad's work secrets or problems between mom and dad's relationship," explains McDonald.
He says it's not hard for police or employers to identify these teen authors, based on their profiles. "All they do is narrow down who this person is that's posting this, and then, it's relatively easy to search their name on one of the online search sites and find out who their family is," said McDonald.
Some of the information can just be embarrassing, but some of it can have real consequences for the parents. "Have represented a lot of parents who have come to me when they have been fired, they have been demoted, or they have been called on the carpet because of what their kids have posted in public places online," said Parry Aftab of
Wiredsafety.com.
Aftab says these types of postings are becoming more common and that many parents are surprised how information moves through cyberspace. "They may be talking about, about how the father may be losing the job and perhaps a neighbor, who is the mortgage broker for the dad, isn't aware that the father's job is in jeopardy."
Margaret Sullivan hasn't had any problems when her daughter Shannon goes online, but she is paying more attention than ever. "It's important to know what they are doing and to be able to help them if they get into trouble, and to keep them safe and apparently now we have to have them keep us safe as well."
Especially when you consider that teens using social network sites are up 15 percent this year.
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