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Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook could damage people's careers as prospective employers are increasingly using the internet to vet job applicants.
Young jobseekers are being warned about sharing intimate details, including boasting about their drinking habits and party lifestyles, because they could be viewed negatively by potential employers.
The sites allow members to restrict the information that is freely available for people to view, but it is possible for anyone with an account to view personal information about others.
Information that is commonly shared on the sites includes details of friends and family, social events, photos, political views and even sexual preference and whether the person has experimented with illegal drugs.
Beverley Main, chief executive of the Human Resources Institute, agrees the sites are becoming one of many tools employers use.
"More and more people are growing up with and using this technology, and it means young people have to be very careful about the information they share about themselves because prospective employers will be looking."
Unisys New Zealand last month published a survey it said showed that Kiwis were still uncomfortable about sharing too much information online.
"Never before has so much personal information been exchanged as part of our daily lives, said Brett Hodgson, managing director of Unisys. "Social networking has entered our daily lives with unprecedented speed.
"Online sites can make it easier and more convenient to keep in touch in a business or personal setting - but they also bring risk if not used in the right way."
Sam Morgan, founder and managing director of Trade Me, said a "pretty significant trend" had developed with employers using the kind of information easily gleaned from the sites to vet potential employees.
"We ask prospective employees if they have a MySpace page. If they say no, that shows they're not engaged enough in the web for our business, but if they say yes, they've got all measure of problems because all that information is up there about them and we can see it all.
"It's a real insight into people's characters," Mr Morgan said.
Much of the information was stored and could be accessed years later. If a young person happened to be a "drug-taking goth", that label could follow them around for a long time.
