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TORONTO - Call it Facebook 101.
Universities across the country are offering workshops, seminars and tipsheets on social media etiquette to new students, warning them of the potential consequences of posting every drunken moment online.
"They should think about what they do online as something they have to be comfortable talking about with their grandkids, 50 years from now," said Jason Nolan, an assistant professor at Toronto's Ryerson University.
"I've been working with youth who are making (online) statements and I'm thinking, 'man, this is going to be around forever. What if you end up running for prime minister?' "
Nolan then laughed as he remembered reading a post by one teenager who wrote to another — in jest — "I'll kill you."
It's just those kinds of flippant online comments that's a concern for schools wanting their students to succeed.
Ryerson has offered a tipsheet for new students this year, with recommendations such as "keep your social networks separate from your professional networks."
There's also this terse reminder: "the Internet is timeless; a photo you post on the web will probably outlive you."
Ryerson isn't the only school to embark on teaching web etiquette.
The career centre at Toronto's York University offers a workshop to students wanting to learn how to use social media to find jobs, which includes a component on how to present oneself professionally online. Carleton University in Ottawa offers a similar program through its career centre, and — at the request of faculty members — offers presentations to classes.
At Dalhousie University in Halifax, students who log-in to their internal email see an article posted to the web portal about online media titled, "Facebook: Don't be so trusting."
"Facebook has become so ubiquitous, that I think, 'well, who doesn't know about it?' " said Dwight Fischer, assistant vice-president of information technology services at the university.
"But we have a lot of students who are new to a large network, and being away from home, well those are the ones you got to be careful of."
Dalhousie students are told to be "very, very careful."
"It's forever. Screw up and they can end up hurting their reputation," Fischer added.
The University of British Columbia has dubbed the danger the "digital tattoo."
The school has a website offering tips and workshops to help students think about their permanent presence online.
The University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., trains and encourages peer mentors to warn new students about the dangers of uploading compromising photos or tweeting libellous comments.
"We also let them know that it's OK to approach a first-year student and say 'hey, you know what, those pictures that you posted from your weekend maybe aren't appropriate. They can come back and haunt you later in life,' " said Leslie Gloor Duncan, Western's co-ordinator of university transitional programs.
But Sidneyeve Matrix, a professor of media at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said students are aware of privacy issues online and they realize parents, professors and future employers are scouring these sites.
"The Internet has a memory and there's no do-overs in cyberspace, but what I focus on is how to use these tools so that you have a footprint online that is professional," said Matrix, explaining how she encourages her own students to use social media.
Matrix said it's unfortunate that Queen's doesn't have workshops or seminars to teach students how to harness the usefulness of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
"Generation Y is adept at using social media for entertainment and leisure, so maybe our job as educators is to encourage their digital literacy," said Matrix.
For Nolan, young people may have been online since childhood, but they still need to learn how to negotiate privacy and personal information.
"I don't think young people are nearly as tech savvy as they've been told they are," said Nolan.
"You can't see (social media) as a small, little private space for me and my own friends. You have to see it as something embedded in a much larger context."
