Digital Footprint for Teens
With all the social media platforms used every day by young people, there are more digital footprints than on a busy beach! Fewer people today can say they have no online presence at all. Teenagers are more likely to use social media everywhere, including in rural areas. Still, it’s important to exercise caution when interacting on social media. Using social media, we are able to maintain relationships with our loved ones. There’s just one concern: anything shared on social media has the potential to reach a wide audience. Oftentimes, teens share online in the heat of a moment, without giving much thought to the viewers or the results. They often forget that what goes on line, stays on line, forever!
Teens typically don’t realise that their internet activities can be traced back to them. Every action they take online cannot only be easily undone, but it may also have long-term consequences. Don’t know what a digital footprint is? We’ll let you know in this article.
What is a digital footprint?
In a nutshell, it’s a history of all you have done digitally. It contains information about all of the online activity, including the websites visited, the games played, the photos posted to social media, the comments left under media articles and on blogs, the online classified advertising published, and everything else a person does on the web. Digital footprints can not be washed away, unlike footprints in the sand.
Why should teens be cautious about their digital footprint?
- If you’re concerned about future career reputation – CareerBuilder found that 70% of businesses said they do social media screenings of prospective employees and that the results do influence hiring decisions. In today’s highly competitive job market, a teenager’s digital footprint can make or break their chances of landing a job or getting into college.
- If you’re concerned about privacy – Every time a teen or anyone posts online, they run the risk of having their identity stolen. Identity theft is a legitimate threat from online photos. If not careful, this may lead to a higher cybersecurity threat. Instagram and Facebook let you set your profiles private so only selected people can see your information.
- What you post on social media reflects on you, as well as your parents and your family, and their business. Do parents what to be thought of as bad, or strict parents? Probably not, so if a teen is saying bad things about their parents, it reflects badly on them too. The social reputation of their school, their employer and their family can all be affected.
