Teacher's Guide to Online Privacy IssuesEstablishing Context

Who's Online?

90% of American teens have used social media:● 75% have a profile on a social

networking site● 23% use at least two different social

networking sites daily

from Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives (Common Sense Media's Program for the Study of Children and Media, 2012). View the infographic at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/teen-social-media-infographic

Digital Cultures, Digital Realities

“In fact, for most Digital Natives, there is no definitive divide between their physical identity and their digital footprint” (Blowers, p. 8).

We need to remember that membership in the digital world has benefits, in both a social context and from a learning perspective.

Implications for Teaching & Learning

Our students are

digital learners.They want to:

create collaborate

shareinteract

Social Media in Education - Teaching Digital Natives in 2011. Uploaded by hollyclarksd. Retrieved July 9, 2013 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zKdPOHhNfY

What Teens Are Sharing on Social Media● 92% use their real name● 82% share their birthday● 91% have posted a photo● 24% have shared a video● 53% post their email address● 33% are friends online with someone they

have never met in person

from Pew Internet Parent Teen Privacy Survey (Pew Research Center Internet and American Life Project, 2013). View the infographic at http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2013/Teens-Social-Media-And-Privacy.aspx

Online Privacy: The Adult Perspective

This perception of privacy focuses on absolute protection of (personal) information.

Online privacy is necessary to protect from external threats (Davis & James, 2012, or Harris, 2010).

Image: 'Grandfather with Granddaughter'http://www.flickr.com/photos/83955435@N00/43995656Found on flickrcc.net

Stranger Danger

Adult concerns focus on ‘stranger danger,’ such as online predators, or third-party access to personal data.

Image: 'FACEBOOK Illustrations IF YOU USE THIS+IMAGE!!++Please+post+the+link+below.++Thanks!!!!'http://www.flickr.com/photos/69805768@N00/3292899689

Found on flickrcc.net

Online Privacy: The Teen PerspectiveTeen privacy concerns focus more on privacy from ‘known others’ (Davis & James, 2012). Examples include protection from:

● the prying eyes of ‘authority’ figures in the adult world (Harris, 2010)

● peer conflict or embarrassment (Davis & James, 2012).

Controlling Access

Managing online reputation or image also plays an important role in the teen concept of privacy Davis & James, 2012). This perception of privacy focuses on control of access to information, or the desire to carve out youth-only spaces online.

Image: 'Comfortable Computing'http://www.flickr.com/photos/47823583@N03/8465390293Found on flickrcc.net

Known Others

Many teens view the growing presence of adults on Facebook as an “invasion of privacy” (Davis & James, p. 6).

Image: 'Private Property'http://www.flickr.com/photos/50523792@N03/4687262861Found on flickrcc.net

Protection, or Empowerment?

Online safety and privacy in schools has tended to focus on restrictive ‘protection’ measures designed to limit student access to sites or tools perceived as potentially ‘dangerous,’ such as the use of filters to block access to social media or Web 2.0 tools (Maycock, 2011).

Image: 'wikispaces - blocked'http://www.flickr.com/photos/31442459@N00/4623459034

Found on flickrcc.net

What's the Goal?

Such measure neither equip students with the skills and attitudes required for full participation in digital culture, nor address the real world privacy concerns of young people (Harris, 2011).

Image: 'Library2010_066-Edit'http://www.flickr.com/photos/10021202@N05/5063379968

Found on flickrcc.net

The digital world is deeply embedded in our students’ lives and the Web 2.0 digital world is increasingly user-driven (Collier, 2010). Approaches to digital privacy and safety should focus on empowering young users.

Skills for the Future

Image: 'TweetDeck for Android'http://www.flickr.com/photos/38305415@N00/4886454080Found on flickrcc.net

We can do this by ensuring our students receive digital citizenship education that equips them with the skills and attitudes necessary for informed judgement, ethical decision-making and civic-minded problem solving.

Image: 'Iphone and Filippo - Dave Hill+Effect'http://www.flickr.com/photos/17927408@N07/2414317157Found on flickrcc.net

Digital Citizenship...

ReferencesBlowers, H. (2010). From realities to values: A strategy framework for digital natives. Computers in Libraries, 30(4), 6-10.

Collier, A. (2010, June 7 ). OSTWG report: Why a ‘living internet’? [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.netfamilynews.org/ostwg-report-why-a-living-internet

Common Sense Media (2012). Social media, social life: How teens view their digital lives. Retrieved from http://www.commonsensemedia.org/teen-social-media-infographic

Davis, K. and James, C. (2012). Tweens’ conceptions of privacy online: Implications for educators. Learning, Media and Technology, 38(1), 4-25.

Harris, F.H. (2010). Teens and privacy: Myths and realities. Knowledge Quest, 39(1), 75-79.

hollyclarksd (2011, October 8). Social media in education - Teaching digital natives in 2011 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zKdPOHhNfY.

Maycock, A. (2011). Issues and trends in intellectual freedom for teacher librarians: Where we’ve come from and where we’re heading. Teacher-Librarian, 39(1), 8-12.

Pew Research Center (2013). Teens, social media and privacy. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2013/Teens-Social-Media-And-Privacy.aspx