Social Media Deviants Need Not Apply

Think Before You Post: This is something that’s been talked about before and that people are already wary of, but now it’s a real thing: social media screening for job application. The Federal Trade Commission recently gave approval to a background-check company Social Intelligence Corp., which screens job applicants based on photos and posts they’ve shared on the Web. Will screening of everything you’ve ever tweeted, every Facebook group you’ve joined, every FB status update, every Instagram and Flickr photo you’ve shared become standard practice for employers thanks to Social Intelligence Corp.? Actually, employers obviously already check out a lot of this stuff, so what’s new here with what Social Intelligence is doing? Well, for one thing, Social Intelligence stores any job-threatening information it finds about you in your personal file for 7 years; however, Social Intelligence requires employers to inform job applicants if they took adverse action because of something they found from the screening process so that the heedless culprit can change his or her privacy settings or delete the incriminating evidence. So basically, you better start detagging and sifting through some of those late-night tweets before sending out resumés. Forbes

Amish Texting?: I don’t think you are supposed to have cell phones when you are still driving around in horse and buggy, but that’s not all that’s wrong with this story: a 21-year-old Amish man was arrested in Indiana for soliciting sex from a minor (specifically a 12-year-old girl) via text. The girl’s parents found out about the explicit texts and confiscated the phone and arranged a sting operation to catch the Amish sexter (never thought I’d write those two words next to each other). When are people going to learn that sexting is just never a good idea, especially with a minor. The Smoking Gun