I finally got around to watching my TiVo'd copy of a Dateline special from last week on the tail end of generation Y still in high school.  Let me just start out by saying - I am now officially terrified of my kids being teenagers (yes, I have 8-13 years before it happens, but I preplan) more specifically teenage girls.

 

Among other things I learned about a very disturbing trend popping up that effects us in the recruiting world as well - specifically those that review candidates bio's and web pages.  When we were in school, if you wanted to stab a girl in the back you kissed her boyfriend or bought the same shirt.  What is the new trend among highschoolers?  Creating fake myspace accounts of the people.  It goes beyond high school.  There are cases of college students creating explicit or unflattering (to say it nicely) websites and user accounts pretending to be people they view as competition for jobs.  Think about it - they aren't dumb.  If they know someone will be looking to compare - who would you hire the one with a friendly site or the one very explicit.  The sad part is - the other student may not even know the site exists, yet their reputations are tarnished.

 

So, long story short - If you do go to those sites and look up candidate websites, keep in mind that you can't believe everything you see.