Clever Kiwis most savvy social networkers

New Zealanders are clever when it comes to social media, with less than 10% of Kiwis likely to criticise their workplace online.

That is according to latest findings from AVG Technologies, featuring responses from over four thousand 18-25 year olds to questions on how they manage their social network profiles.

Kiwi's intelligence online seems well-placed given nearly one quarter of the participants asked are ‘Facebook friends’ with their boss.

Of the 11 countries surveyed, New Zealanders had the highest percentage of young adults who know better than to post angry or critical comments about their workplace online, while Italians are the most likely.

Two thirds of the global study who are ‘Facebook friends’ with their colleagues do not restrict access to co-workers but 13% admitted posting abusive content online about their boss or company after a bad day at work.

“AVG’s latest research clearly shows young people today have a comfort with using online social networks that is leading to blurring between their professional and private lives," says Tony Anscombe, AVG’s senior security evangelist.

"It seems obvious that posting abusive content about a boss or workplace is not very sensible, but it’s important to understand that not only could it damage a person’s existing career, it could also negatively impact on future opportunities too.

"Our research findings indicate that today’s 18- 25 year old digital natives need to be more aware of their ‘online brand’ as something employers and recruiters are increasingly investigating.”

Other key findings include:

* No social networks allowed:New Zealanders are the least likely to access social networks banned at work on mobile devices. Less than a third of young New Zealanders do so, while nearly 60% of Australians do.

* Unrestricted profiles for co-workers:One third of New Zealand workers do not restrict their Facebook profile for work colleagues, but this is actually a lower percentage when compared to their counterparts such as the U.S. (59%), Australia (38%) and the United Kingdom (34%).

* Sub-editing social profiles:Only half young New Zealanders (48%) are, but young people in most of the other countries surveyed are much less likely to have done so.

* Unsuitable pictures:The Spanish (80%) are most likely to have inappropriate images posted online, compared with only a quarter of New Zealanders.

* Interview techniques:New Zealand employers also appear to be least likely to mention online activity, with only 5% of young people being asked about online activity in an interview, compared with 15 % of Italians.

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