A few weeks ago I posted on how your spouse could get you fired. Well, its not just your spouse you need to worry about. What about your kids?
A recent Family Circle article discussed how a teen’s post got her father fired. The father apparently could not get time off to attend his daughter’s school musical. The daughter was upset and vented about it on her MySpace page. The article says she stated she didn’t want to work for someone like dad’s boss: "He yells all the time, treats my dad like dirt, won’t let my dad spend time with his family even though he gets to take time off constantly, and doesn’t even know how to do his job."
Unfortunately, the rant went out to several hundred of the girl’s MySpace friends, including kids at school, one of whom was the boss’ son. The boy showed the post to his father and the girl’s father was fired.
All of this underscores the importance of discussing with your kids how "public" information can become. Even if an account is private, that doesn’t mean that one of your kid’s friends won’t share the information with the rest of the world.
P.S. Sorry I couldn’t find a link to the article online but check out the October 17, 2009 edition of Family Circle magazine for the article, Share Tactics. There are several examples of how today’s teens have no problem revealing every detail of their lives online.