Facebook, MySpace, etc. question

[klmama]

I've heard the concerns about young people having these accounts and putting inappropriate things on the web that come back to haunt them later. What if someone with the exact same name does something like this? Is it likely that identities could be confused by a potential employer? My ds has a very common first name. I know of two other young men in our city with the exact same name, first and last, as my ds, and I've found a number of others around the country just by googling the name. At least one of them has a Facebook site, which I also discovered while googling. I'm just not sure of how these sites work or if mistaken identity is possible or likely. What do you think? Is it something to be concerned about?

[PiCO]

I have a FaceBook account. I just searched my name, and came up with 245 matches.

 

I also own a business, and I hire young people. I do search for a FaceBook and MySpace account before I hire them. If the picture on the account isn't the person I'm interviewing, I assume it's not them. (My picture is not of me, so this is an easy way around it.) Also, if your profile is set to private, no one can see it. Just have a respectable picture.

 

You can also search for a FaceBook page using an e-mail address. This is what I do to confirm that a person is who I think it is. I don't hire young people with pages that are completely inappropriate (pictures of underage drinking, "I like to Party!" etc.)

 

I've heard the concerns about young people having these accounts and putting inappropriate things on the web that come back to haunt them later. What if someone with the exact same name does something like this? Is it likely that identities could be confused by a potential employer? My ds has a very common first name. I know of two other young men in our city with the exact same name, first and last, as my ds, and I've found a number of others around the country just by googling the name. At least one of them has a Facebook site, which I also discovered while googling. I'm just not sure of how thiese sites work or if mistaken identity is possible or likely. What do you think? Is it something to be concerned about?

[OhM]

I saw this news article the other day:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2230058/Woman-branded-prostitute-in-Facebook-scam.html

 

This was an intentional thing, but it seems to me that mistaken identities could happen. I've noticed most people post their pictures - maybe that would lessen the possibility?