The content and personal information listed on popular networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace may now be an integral tool for employers and recruiters to use whenever screening their potential new hires straight out of college.

According to a vignette from CNN, 43 percent of employers run Internet background searches on prospective employees by using Internet sites such as Google, MySpace and Facebook. With the information readily accessible to the world, students and future employees are being subjected to a potential ethical nightmare in regards to privacy issues while on the Web.

Scott Lewis, a sophomore Parks and Recreation major, believes that the content on his personal sites should not be viewed by anyone except those he allows through his privacy measures.

“This check-up is faulty due to the fact that it is my personal life that they are viewing and has nothing to do with my overall qualifications,” said Lewis.

In a report done by Kanya Balakrishna from the Yale Daily News, Chris Hughes, the spokesman for Facebook, does not believe that employers are doing this as often as reported.

“There have been a scattered few articles in the press regarding employer interviews, but judging from the very few number of reports I’ve seen about it, it doesn’t seem to be as widespread of a phenomenon as some people believe it to be,” said Hughes.

The major issue with employers using networking Internet sites to determine the overall character of a future employee is that some people believe it to be an ethical dilemma becoming more prevalent with the advent of the information age. Many experts claim that personal Web sites should not be accessible to anyone outside of the person’s network and privacy settings.

“I can see the point to it, but I feel that they were mixing my business life with my personal life. That makes me uncomfortable because something I posted three years ago and forgot all about may misrepresent me whenever I am hunting for my career,” said Laura Hensley, a junior Studio Art major.

Employers are not the only people joining in on the networking bandwagon because many politicians and political agendas have been known to utilize student friendly Web sites to perpetuate their political teachings to a wide array of current or future voters in order to ensure their messages are being heard.

The White House has recently been uploading anti-drug videos to the popular site Youtube.com, according to the Associated Press.

People should be wary of the content on their networking pages because the powers that be are indeed watching, waiting and Googling for any mistakes and indiscretions out there and accessible to the world.

The best advice critics can offer to anyone fearful of this potential background check is to revamp any and all privacy settings and keep the content to a respectable PG or PG-13 level. By doing these steps, those who can view private materials don’t have any ammunition worthy of being noted during the hiring process for any future jobs.

Emily Knight, a sophomore Communications major, feels that much of the content she has on her MySpace Web site is pretty safe but that she may change her content in order to protect herself from unwanted viewers.

“The stuff they find on there is irrelevant but I would change my content. However, I don’t think the information should be used to base whether they hire me or not,” said Knight.