Social Networking Sites, A Parent Trap?

A new web warning for families, More and more parents are getting burned with their kids spill family secrets online. Some moms and dads are even getting arrested or fired.
These websites offer kids a forum, but sometimes what they say can get their parents in serious trouble.
Teens don't often know it, but many families are getting hurt according to Internet Safety Expert Parry Aftab.
"I’ve represented a lot of parents who’ve come to me when they have been fired, they’ve been demoted or they’ve been called on the carpet because of what their kids posted online," Aftab says.
She says many teens still don't get it, that their posts on networking and blogging sites aren't private.
" I always warn kids never to post anything that parents, principal, predators can’t see. Now, I have to warn them not to post anything that their parents’ boss or anybody in their neighborhood shouldn’t be seeing either," Aftab says.
Sgt. Corey MacDonald agrees. He tours the country speaking about Internet safety and says police and employers are watching, looking for, and finding all kinds of dirt.
It look MacDonald only a matter of moments to find posts online saying "Not only do I have to live with my nagging mom, my dad does drugs" and "my parents are lazy alcoholics."
MacDonald says it's not hard for police or employers to uncover the identity of teens from the details in their profiles.
"All they have to do is narrow down who this person is that’s posting this. And then, it’s relatively easy to search their name on one of the online search sites and find out who their family is," he says.
They're also getting a lot of anonymous tips. Some posts are leading to arrests, like the case of a boy who boasted online about his mother buying a keg for his underage friends.
"This is a much bigger problem than people are aware of," Aftab says.
Even innocent-sound news can do damage.
"They may be talking about how their father is losing a job and perhaps a neighbor who’s the mortgage broker for the father isn’t aware that the father’s job is in jeopardy," she says.
Experts say it's critical for parents to talk to their teens about the repercussions of revealing family business and make sure they turn on all privacy settings.
But a note about privacy settings - even if your kids turn their's on when they send messages and pictures to friends, your have no control over whether those friends keep their page private. So the images and info may still get out there.
More than 12 million kids ages 12 to 17 used social networking sites in August 2007. That's up 15% from the same period last year. Many admit they have online friends that they've never met. Those friends could, in fact, be police officers or even their parents' employers.