Google CEO says the young will struggle to escape 'cyber pasts'

Young people may be forced to change their name to escape the consequences that come with exposing private information on social networking sites like Facebook, Google's boss has said.

Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt warned the amount of details some users leave online could come back to haunt them in the future, particularly when applying for jobs.

Figures show that approximately 600 million people have personal profiles online, which can be viewed in full by total strangers. But with more and more employers using employment screening when selecting candidates and taking advantage of background check services, some information long forgotten by the user could still be accessed by a potential employer at the click of a mouse.

According to the story in The Telegraph, the 55 year old Google boss said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal: "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time."

"I mean we really have to think about these things as a society. In the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," he warned.

Internet experts have welcomed the comments made by Mr Schmidt. Dylan Sharpe from the privacy website Big Brother Watch told The Independent: "Right now there are millions of young kids and teenagers who, when they apply for jobs in 10 years time, will find that there is so much embarrassing stuff about them online that they cannot take down."