How to educate kids to manage and protect online privacy
WHAT DO WE TALK WHEN WE TALK ABOUT PRIVACY?
WHAT DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL NETWORKS?
Everyone has the right to prevent their personal information (telephone number, address, but also the school they attend, personal photos, etc …) from becoming known to others.
This is what is meant by “right to privacy”. Knowing how to recognize, manage and defend it is the first step to surfing the net responsibly.
On the Internet our children share experiences, share what they like and what they don’t, post photos of their most important moments. But not only that: they want to have more and more friends, they are looking for an audience, people to interact with. In short, they manifest the need to appear and show themselves, strictly connected to the search for their own identity. What about privacy?
Knowing how to manage your privacy, not surprisingly, is the first step to surfing the Internet independently. Something about security , but also about “reputation”, or how to establish the right border between oneself and others. For this reason, talking about privacy with your children can really be an important educational opportunity and this is the purpose of the “The Net” project.
It may elude us but the word “privacy” , in its perhaps excessive synthesis, embodies an important right recognized to every individual: that of having his privacy and personal data protected .
Personal data represent a real “value”.
It is the information that identifies us: name, surname, facial features, voice . But also those that “describe” us, represent us: our tastes, our preferences, our choices, our belonging to a group, our health. For this we must learn to protect our data and those of others, be they our friends or strangers.
It is essential to do this, especially today in the hyper-technologized world in which we live.
Internet, ever more advanced mobile phones, smart cards offer huge opportunities to be always in contact, to communicate with anyone in the world and to simplify our lives. But what runs in the optical fibers or travels in the ether are first of all data and, for the most part, personal data. And these can be captured by those who could use them, even after years, for purposes other than those for which we have sold them, communicated or put them on the net and perhaps damage us. We need to know that we can be the ones to cause damage when, without thinking too much, we spread information that can harm confidentiality and dignity, ours and others’.
To use the new tools available, we need to know their potential and risks.
It is important not only to enforce the rules that are the basis of a correct use of data, to protect and help us to protect our confidentiality, but also to grow an authentic culture of respect in our society.
What are we talking about when we talk about privacy?
Let’s talk about Respect. If you think about it, the correct processing of personal data (the famous ” protection of privacy “) is nothing more than a matter of respect: it is the essential condition for respect (precisely) for DIGNITY , IDENTITY , the RIGHT to CONFIDENTIALITY of each person.
You first! Seen in this way, privacy is no longer … strong?!?
Personal data, Consent, Sensitive data, Interested, Treatment, or the keywords of the law, seem closer if we interpret them as the tools through which the Privacy Code allows us to enforce our rights. But … Okkio. You are often the first to disrespect yourself.
Internet, mobile phones, Youtube, social networks …
New technologies simplify our lives and allow us to stay in constant contact, but they can also pose great risks for our private sphere. What do you really know, for example, about social networks? It is clear that we all know Flickr, Twitter or Facebook .
These virtual environments communicate a sense of apparent intimacy, yet the personal information, photos, videos we share online could cause “side effects” even after years.
Upload, tag, chat… ..
These are the things we do most often on the Internet and they all rely on sending our personal data. Our profile, sometimes home address and mobile number. The list of our friends, our habits, our… thoughts, our stories….
And these data (perhaps sensitive) can be read, saved, collected in huge archives, exchanged or even sold (they have great commercial value), even by those who do not know.
Have you ever thought about it?
What if we exchange someone else’s data? Or do we publish a video shot in the classroom without permission, maybe on Youtube?
Well, then you can get into serious trouble!
And again: what if today you upload the video of your “stunt” that tomorrow, viewed by who is about to hire you, ends up costing you your job?
Always remember:
privacy protection = respect
Respect for others, but also respect for yourself.
And now that we know how much (in every sense!) Our data is worth, let’s get used to treating it with care
