British youth unaware of their digital footprint
Are youth really this clueless about their digital footprint? The Information Commissioner’s Office in Great Britain has just released the results of a survey of British youth ages 14-21. “Six in 10 have never considered that what they put online now might be permanent and could be accessed years into the future.”
In fact, some youths online make conscious decisions to reveal personal information to expand their network of “friends:
“Two thirds (eight in 10 girls aged 16-17) accept people they don’t know as ‘friends’ on social networking sites and over half leave parts of their profile public specifically to attract new people.”
There is a perception that, in general, young people do not pause to consider the implications of their activities online. This can result in cyber-bullying, strained relationships with your real life friends, uncomfortable conversations with your parents, or even your future employers.
“Initial thoughts – who cares? Subsequent thoughts – omg!!!” (Female, 14, Scotland)
For that reason, the Information Commissioner’s Office has launched a site aimed at young Britons. It is one more piece of help in a growing community of resources like the Media Awareness Network (who have launched a useful french-language site), ThinkUKnow and others.
3 Responses
5:38 pm
[...] British youth unaware of their digital footprint Canada’s Privacy Commissioner blog points to a report from the Information Commissioner’s Of… [...]
8:07 pm
This isn’t a British phenomenon. These programs originated in the USA and they encourage kids to put all sorts of personal information online: what school they attend, etc. The worst I’ve come across encourages users to put photos of themselves online (not just a face thumbnail) and the girls who show off a beautiful pair of legs or a slim young body in a bikini are the ones with a huge collection of “friends”.
So your headline is misleading. American kids are less clued up than British kids. It’s the Brits who are leading the way to try and curb this form of abuse, because we can see that the Yanks have set up a paedophiles’ paradise in such websites.
8:46 pm
Thanks for your comment.
The headline simply reflects the source of the observations: a survey of British youth.
Leave a Reply