London -- Youth advocacy groups in Britain are lobbying to stop companies from screening job applicants by checking on social networking sites on the Internet.

The Times of London reported that 20 percent of employers in Britain check on candidates by surfing for information -- known as "digital dirt" -- on the Internet. More than 60 percent of the employers who did so said the searches influenced their hiring decisions.

But John Carr, secretary of the Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety, said that adolescent gossip posted on social Web sites shouldn't be part of an application process.

"A world where even a 14-year old has to think twice before posting an adolescent poem suddenly looks very unappealing," Carr told The Times.

Young people shouldn't be held to "tightly focused adult norms," he said.

The groups are pressing for a ban based on equal opportunity, given some youths don't post personal information online.

Deborah Fernon of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said, "Personal sites have become almost a CV (curriculum vitae) in itself," and advised recruiters that "social networking sites could be at best irrelevant and at worst misleading," The Times said
She didn't favor banning the practice.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.