Some question whether what children post online — and what others post about children — should follow them into adulthood, potentially affecting their academic and vocational careers. As tech companies target younger children with apps like Facebook’s Messenger Kids, children go online at ever-earlier ages. “A whole lot of content, whether it’s accurate or not, is there with you when you become an adult,” said digital literacy specialist Joanne Orlando. Even former Google CEO Eric Schmidt once suggested that young people have the automatic right to change their names upon adulthood, to gain distance from their online pasts. But the education company Kaplan found that 36 percent of college admissions counselors use social media profiles in decision-making about applicants; 58 percent reported that what they found had a negative impact. “The ripple effects of derogatory language can be very long and deep,” said Tara L. Conley, assistant professor of communication and media at Montclair State University, and the race and technology practitioner fellow at Stanford University. As a study called “Prevalence and Psychological Effects of Hateful Speech in Online College Communities” noted, “hateful speech exposure has negative effects on students’ academic lives and performance, with lowered self-esteem, and poorer task quality and goal clarity.”