Ethics and Facebook

[Shatani]

---

Members do not see this ad.

WOW to this thread.

I have my fb on the highest standards and am hopefully extremely unsearchable. But even if I were, there really shouldn't be anything on anyones fb account that could get you in trouble (but I'm not your mom so thats up to you).

But regarding facebooking clients - there was just an article on this in one of this years APAGS magazines. According to them, it is OK. But with an exception. You make two accounts, one being your personal one and another being your professional account. Your professional account lists your websites and is used as a resource for clients and others in the psych field - posting helpful links and worksheets and videos, etc. Kind of like a business profile, but for you. However, I would never personally want to be "friends" with any of my clients or customers at any of my previous jobs, but I guess I keep my privacy levels on high due to the population I work with.

About facebook friending supervisors, it depends on them. One of my supervisors I won't and another one added me and it took me about a year to accept it. Professors I have never felt the urge to do so, not sure why I would want to - maybe afterwards to keep in touch.

But yeah, i believe its personal preference as long as you are keeping strictly to the code of ethics and keeping everything professional.

thats what i have going. it wasnt originally for facebooking with clients, though...and i dont have any former clients on that friendlist. i started it because i was asked to managed the facebook group for a professional association of which i am a member and i could NOT have that associated with the foolishness that abounds on my personal page

my personal page has the highest security settings and is actually not my real name, so i dont have too much fear of being found by a client. if a client found my professional page, i would probably not have a problem adding them. i occasionally post professional things and most of the friends on that page are other psychologists and mental health professionals. i do believe i have it set so that no one can see who else is on my friend list and if i did start to get clients on that page i would make it so that people could only see what THEY post on my wall and not anyone else....i wouldnt want clients commenting on other clients' posts. thats a whole other can of worms!


as for professors and supervisors. there is the same split. i have professors that i like, but they dont need to see my silly side. they are on my professional page. others though, ive been close to for years and they are friends on both pages. one of them is a prof that i told that i couldnt wait til i graduated so we could be friends. lol...and now we are! but i digress...