"Once it's on the internet, it is there forever". If I had a nickel for every time I heard that saying I'd probably have a good chunk of spending money in my pocket. If you haven't heard, there have now been 3 instances of past tweets being exposed y professional baseball players in just the last week. Due to the nature of the tweets, I won't post them directly, but will add links. It started with Josh Hader, whose racist and homophobic tweets were made in 2011 and 2012, when he was 18 years old. In just the past couple of days, tweets from Trea Turner and Sean Newcomb have been uncovered. This is not just a recent issue, as past tweets were exposed of Larry Nance Jr. shortly after being drafted in which he called Kobe a rapist. 

This is also beyond the world of sports, as companies can also go back and find Facebook posts, Tweets, etc... The question is how do parents and coaches handle it. You could easily jump in and say "It's the players fault, they shouldn't be so stupid", but you have to realize that high school kids are going to be stupid. They aren't considered adults yet for a reason. Should they be blamed? Heck yeah, but it is still a responsibility of parents and coaches to help guide them through this social media age. I can guarantee you that I made tweets as a 16 year old that I would not want my company seeing. 

So for you parents, or sports coaches out there, what do you think the correct form of action should be? Are you banning your kids from social media, monitoring it, or are you trusting your kids/players to make wise decisions? Once things get out there, it is out there for good. I'm sure Sean Newcomb wasn't expected to be questioned about 7 year old tweets right after being one out away from a no-hitter. 

I'm not sure about Facebook or Instagram, but I do know that once you delete your Twitter account, all your tweets are gone, and can not be found. The only way would be if someone had taken a screenshot of you tweet before you deleted it. In fact, Mike Golic Jr. suggested on his show this morning for all professional athletes to delete and create new accounts. 

It's just such a sketchy situation, and as a newly married man who is about ready to try for children, I am wondering how I will want to deal with Social Media as my children age.