<p>My friend was tagged in a photo on someone's profile that he's concerned about. He doesn't have a Facebook himself, but it was a picture of him, and the poster tagged him under a name that was meant as a joke among us (it wasn't vulgar or demeaning, but it was still a bit suggestive. I don't think his name was anywhere on it). About half a day later the entire photo was been deleted by the poster immediately upon request. We've apologized to our friend for our actions and intended not to do it again, but he is very upset over this and is concerned that he won't be able to get into college over it. He's an overall good student. My other friend, who was the poster, feels really guilty about it and I'm just stuck in the middle and wanting to make things better :(</p>
<p>Also, the profile is set to only friends can view it and search for it. But are colleges able to see private profiles too?</p>
<p>If someone is good with computers then they could probably figure out how to see private profiles on Facebook. They could also probably figure out how to see deleted pictures from private profiles. The kind of person who spends time doing this needs to get a life.</p>
<p>College admissions committees are not going to devote time surfing the internet to see what kind of compromising pictures they can find of applicants. They have enough to do with considering all of the submitted material they receive.</p>
<p>This picture sounds like it was taken and posted in fun. Even if colleges admissions committees saw it they wouldn’t care. Your friend is too worried.</p>
<p>Oh gosh. I can’t even begin to list the dozens of students at my HS with booze/pot pics on FB that are now at top schools. Please, do not be worried; your friend and anyone else will be fine.</p>
<p>Just when people put picture up from parties you crop out beer cans and weed, because if they see weed or drugs you will definitely not get in, I have heard some schools don’t even want to see the red cups or pong.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I’ve been worried about this for a little while. We tagged him as a child molester because of his facial hair (I know, stupid). It was funny at the time, but now it seems to have caused a lot of turmoil. But it’s off and gone out of Facebook as we know it.</p>
<p>Yeah, you should be fine. The only problem I have is that you didn’t think calling someone as child molester was “demeaning”… I get that it was a joke between you and your friends, but you don’t see how that could be insulting in public?</p>
<p>Maybe “demeaning” wasn’t really the right word to use there. I, personally, did find it insulting and rude once I thought about it, but not in a critical sense (critical enough to lose a friend over it, especially when we did apologize for it). But we’ve learned our lesson about it, regardless if we’ll ever be forgiven or not.</p>
<p>Most colleges won’t look at facebook pages, but those very few that do will only look at your own page. None will search the Internet for photos of applicants.</p>
<p>Cool. I just wanted to make sure that you understood that, in general, calling someone a “child molester” is considered “demeaning” since, in our culture, molesting children is considered “bad”. It’s certainly not something that you would normally lose a friendship over, but if you “jokingly” called a Dean at your college a “baby raper” while asking for financial aid, you might not get any money.</p>
<p>As for your friend, I’m sure that this issue will blow over. Most colleges don’t have the resources to investigate every applicant, unearthing every joke and silly comment anyone has ever made about them. And even if they did, it’s not like they expect you to be absolutely formal and dignified – if they did, they wouldn’t admit any high school students at all!</p>