daverea.com

As if our kids weren’t babied enough by the countless special interest groups that purport to act in their best interest, a coalition of childrens’ advocacy groups has now demanded a ban on employer use of online postings in personnel decisions. Yep, we’ve got some real winners out there.

Apparently, this latest cadre of the incessantly-concerned is worried that the kiddies might post something online that hurts their chances for a job or a college admission later on. I can just see the hand-wringing now: Little Johnny isn’t responsible enough to correlate cause and effect right now, so just in case he posts something on twitter next week that might keep him from getting that paper route he’s been hoping for, we should make sure the Daily News can’t not-hire him because of his blog.”

This just highlights two of the things I’m sick of, but that just seem to keep coming out of the mouths of the nanny-staters. For one, saddling businesses with all sorts of obscure laws that limit what they can and can’t do in hiring decisions is really wearing thin. It’s a free market, and if I’m going to pay someone out of my hard-earned profits, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to take a peek at that person’s myspace page to see if they’ve got a level head on their shoulders. If I don’t like what I see, then it’s my prerogative to pick someone else. The nanny-staters who push for this sort of thing aren’t kicking in any money for the paychecks of the slacker employees who their policies prevent me from not-hiring…

But more than this, I’m sick of people not being held accountable for doing stupid things on the Internet. If you miss a job opportunity because you posted dozens of “look what I’m doing instead of working” entries in your livejournal account during business hours, how is it your next prospective employer’s problem? The same thing goes for the people who’re silly enough to post their addresses, phone numbers, vacation plans, and all the other intimate details of their lives online. If you don’t stop and think long enough to recognize what in your life is private, and then keep it that way, then “permissum user caveo” to you. That’s let the user beware for those not quick enough to hop over to Intertran…

If you get a chance, at least give the article a read… The last two quotes are definitely the most priceless! (*sigh*)