Paris Brown was the UK’s first youth police commissioner for less than a week. That’s more than twice as long as Britney Spears’ marriage but hardly worth adding to her CV.
It was Twitter and Britain’s terrier-like tabloid press that proved her undoing. Journalists raked through years of her old Twitter feeds uncovering dozens of posts that did not fit in with the qualities needed to be a role model for young people.
The 17-year-old had, when younger, appeared to condone drug taking and binge drinking and made comments that were apparently racist and homophobic.
Gay people were “fags”, according to her; Travellers “pikeys”; and immigrants “illegals”.
Despite her foul-mouthed rants being delivered when she was between 14 and 16, they cost Brown her £15,000 job with Kent Police, who say they did not look at her social networking history as such checks were not routine for that level of job. But should they have?
Alan Martin runs Chat Marketing, based in Guardbridge. The marketing and training company specialises in the use of social networking, and Alan, 42, formerly held senior marketing positions at VisitScotland Fife and Dundee Science Centre.
“You really shouldn’t put anything up on a social network that you wouldn’t want to see in the paper the next day,” he said. “So many people have lost their jobs over stuff they posted on Facebook and Twitter. Social media is a very powerful tool to get your message across but it can also badly damage reputations.
“It is a little bit unfortunate that this happened when she was so young. If you’re not careful your digital profile can haunt you for the rest of your life.”
Few people are safe enough online, Alan reckons.
“A lot of people are not net-savvy,” he said. “They know how to use Facebook and Twitter but they don’t think about managing the content and getting rid of anything that might get you in trouble. There are plenty of documented cases of people being offered jobs and posting things like: ‘Should I stay in the job I like or take this new job that will be rubbish but pays loads more?’.
“Quite often they then find their potential employer withdraws the offer and they have no new job to go to.”
Social media has blurred the line between people’s public and private lives.
“It is a contentious area,” Alan continued. “A lot of people will argue that they are entitled to post whatever they like on their Facebook page because it is their own private life and none of their employer’s business.
“However, it’s a perfectly legitimate HR tactic to look at posts which are publicly available. Where it does get a bit duplicitous is if employers send friend requests or go through friends of friends and get in through the back door.
“I have even heard of cases of employers demanding the login details and passwords of employees’ social networking accounts.”
While not illegal, it would be very difficult for any company to justify demanding employees’ social networking login details at an employment tribunal, according to an employment law expert.
Graeme Dickson is a senior solicitor at Thorntons Law, based in Dundee.
He said: “Asking for login and password details for people’s private accounts is not illegal in the UK. However if an employer made it a requirement of recruitment I suspect it would not be looked upon well in the court of public opinion.
“If an employer tried to impose the requirement on existing employees this could be very problematic especially if an employee refused.
“A dismissal that followed such a refusal could well be unfair unless the employer could justify the decision. I would suspect that this would be a high hurdle for an employer to overcome at a tribunal.”
Of course, employers cannot, for example, ask female candidates if they are planning to have children. But even innocent questions about hobbies can be problematic.
“The support of a particular football team could be linked to a particular religion, so when they do not get the job they may feel aggrieved and try to accuse the potential employer of discrimination,” Graeme said.
However, he cautions that people don’t have any automatic expectation of privacy and for an employer to check their employees’ social media presence is not in itself illegal.
To be safe, Alan Martin recommends anyone starting a new job should have a thorough check through their social networking history for posts or pictures that might get them in trouble.
“Particularly if you’re a recent graduate starting out on the career ladder, go back and check there aren’t any pictures from your days as a student that you might not want employers to see.”