Technology advancements - a blessing or means to a curse?

To follow up on "Social networkers, beware", here's a tale of teenagers in separate incidences who are in trouble at school, and some with the law, for sending inappropriate images of themselves, by email and cell phone. The charges for one girl could include her having to register as a sexual offender - that's a lifetime stigma. And once you are on the a sex offender list, the reason why you had to initially register becomes lost. You are just a sex offender with the restrictions and discriminations associated with it. But, more in line with my earlier Beware post, you just don't know where these images may end up... once you send those things to other folks, you lose control of the images of yourself. The ABC news article discusses a boy who posted nude or nearly nude pictures of his ex-girlfriend online. I bet that wasn't what she had planned when she sent them to him - but that was before she broke up with him of course.

But I may be wrong, it may not be that these young people don't understand the possible repercussions, it might be that they just don't care. Should they care?

Means to a curse? Check out this article about how false and/or expunged convictions are making their way into background checks and spoiling people's chances at housing and employment. Database sharing and mining is causing information that has once been removed to pop up again, and it's ruining some people's lives.