Internet monitoring companies have been hired by Australian schools to spy on students’ activities on social networking sites.

“We go where the conversations are, where young people or communities of interest are coalescing online,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted an internet monitoring firm, SR7 partner, James Griffin, as saying.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Northern Beaches Christian School Principal Stephen Harris said he calls parents even late at night if their children post inappropriate content on the web.

“Our school policy now extends the concept of the school playground to any environment in the social media platform where a student of the school or a teacher is identified by either name, image or inference,” he said.

Public schools are also stepping into what had earlier been considered either private or the domain of parents.

New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties President Cameron Murphy described the monitoring as an “outrageous invasion” of students’ privacy.

“We know it’s become pretty much the essential way of communicating for this generation of students and we understand it’s a big part of their lives. But we’re also aware of the dangers that can come from unrestrained use,” School Director Frances Booth said.

A study has found that young people are most likely to limit personal information online and least likely to trust sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

Marlene McManus, one of the young people, remarked that she has to represent a public face that does not hurt her image.

From Google.com:

It might go against conventional wisdom, but a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project is adding fuel to the argument that young people are fast becoming the gurus of online reputation management, especially when it comes to social networking sites.

Among other things, the study found that they are most likely to limit personal information online – and the least likely to trust free online services ranging from Facebook to LinkedIn and MySpace.

Marlene McManus, 21, is among those young adults. On the job hunt since graduating from Clark University in Massachusetts, she’s been “scouring” her Facebook page, removing photos that contain beer cups and any other signs of college exploits. She’s also dropped Twitter altogether.

“I have to present a public face that doesn’t have the potential to hurt my image,” McManus says.

She has seen otherwise upstanding adults, well past their 20s, sharing compromising photos and questionable rants with too many people online. “I get embarrassed for these people and sometimes just want to shake them,” she says.

Mary Madden, the Pew researcher who was the study’s lead author, remarked that the findings in a way reflect that young people use social networking for long than elders and are therefore more experienced.

In the last few years, social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut, and Twitter have gained immense popularity. Popularity of social networking tools such as Farmville (Facebook) have been highly popular and reaching every modern home and its inhabitants. However, what was once a time pass activity is now transforming itself into an addiction.

While a 10-15 minutes presence on these sites was more than enough in the past, it is now several hours. While one family member was previously criticized for spending so much of time, the habit soon developed into the whole family and you can easily find a number of people and families getting addicted to these networking sites at the extent of compromising their natural happiness and family.

In the quest to make a noteworthy appearance on these sites, most of us are forgetting the real meaning of happiness. And what we are losing in the meanwhile is interest in personal relationships and social happiness. While friendships are now limited to Orkut and Facebook, phone calls to friends are reducing as one can chat live but the personal touch of care, respect, and belonging is reducing due to these sites.

If you are a member of any of these sites and spending too much of your time (more than 30 minutes) per day then you can see the “wall” in personal relationships already. If you have not, do not consider yourself as an exception as the first stone is already there and you have just missed understanding your sixth sense. Do not allow social networking to kill your personal life!