Think before you type!
Its always been a stupid idea to post your personal details on a publicly viewable forum, but nowadays with the increase of social networking sites, such as myspace; Bebo and Facebook, people seem to be forgetting this. These innocent pieces of information wriitten in blogs or even messages can lead to horrible incidents such as this, a case which could have been far worse if they had not been discussing their school trip and had been arranging a meeting in a more secluded place.
Although its not even just the sick net pervs you have to worry about now. The increase in use of social networking sites by gangs has also resulted in a greater level of monitoring by the authorities. Before it was difficult to trace exactly who was posting due to pseudonyms and the red tape required to trace an i.p beyond the general area, so follow ups for minor crimes were uncommon. Nowadays people use the same pseudonym across various platforms and the same emails to register to different forums. You may not be posting pictures of yourself on one platform but a quick google search can link the lot. For example throw my username into the search engine and you have a link to all the forums I am on under this name (I don’t have a myspace), anyone could link any of my posts from any of these forums to create a fuller picture. Even more foolish are the people who put all there eggs in one basket like this chump, posting your own face next to an admission that you are growing dope is ludicrous. I’m getting a bit muddled up but basically you ain’t invincible and if I can find pictures of your face and link you to your account on here then the police sure as hell can to so be careful what you admit to. No crime is too small when you’ve given them directions to your house.
Finally you would think that aside from paedo’s, perverts, police and other haters your safe. If you think carefully and don’t start posting pictures of massive piles of drugs or your scantiliy clad younger sister, sticking to what you did at the weekend etc, you would think you are safe. Well I’m afraid not, just posting about your fun time at a legal club could wind up with you losing out on a job. Facebook etc have become the latest stage in the interview process with employers often using them to sift through applicants to find out what goes on at home. Even schools and colleges have begun to make sure students are behaving in their extra curricular activities. If you give this article a read you’ll find out a bit about how much it really matters. Nowadays the workplace is innundated with people with the skills required and employers have recognised this and are beginning to take more and more control over what you do outside work, with drugs tests and the like, so don’t make the mistake of filling the internet with sordid stories of your weekends if your wanting to work your way up the economic ladder.
I’m not telling you to stop posting on here, quite the opposite I think that social networking are there for a purpose and forums serve another. Its great to keep up with old friends and find new ones over the internet and that’s what networking sites were designed for but when you live our type of lifestyle on the fringes of legality keep it anonymous and between friends… like here.