Never has so much information about every Tom, Dick and Harry been so easily accessible to so many. We share more information with each other than ever before. Digital natives are growing up in the midst of a massive transition when it comes to privacy. Privacy, as I and other digital immigrants knew it, will never be the same again.Some things might be changed to protect them and some things will most certainly not.
Increasing numbers of youngsters are putting very private information into online services without thinking about what may happen to the shared information further down the line.Many Digital Natives share private information online that they would not share with anyone in the analogue world. All this information will be collected stored and part of their digital dossier for the rest of their life. Their digital dossier will be there whether they like it or not. What does identity mean for youngsters today? What can identity mean when they have dozens of online profiles and avatars? They should be concerned about identity thefts or that information they share may be misused. The gap between this generation and that of Digital immigrants, especially concerning digital literacy and participation, may be one of our time`s biggest challenges.
A survey done by Gjensidigestiftelsen recently ,on conditions concerning children’s upbringing, reveals that Norwegian children are major consumers of the internet. Seven out of ten children log on to the internet on a daily basis. Nearly all children aged13 and over are surfing the internet several times a day. YouTube, MSN and Facebook are the most popular services and 62 per cent of all children have their own profile on various social services.
There were initially, various online communities that were thought suitable and designed for children and communities designed for adults such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook, twitter and other social communities have now become a meeting place across generation boundaries. One out of three twelve year olds` have their own profile on Facebook and the age boundaries between children and adults are blurred. Unlike the real world where there are age limits, closing hours and face to face communication, children have access to almost anything on the net around the clock. Many of them are taking part in actions they really aren`t ready for. They trade privacy for attention, posting videos on YouTube, photos on Facebook, or messages that are humiliating, embarrassing or even illegal.
When they/we are connected to the internet and using more and more of our time in the digital environment we are all leaving traces behind. The more time we spend participating in internet life the more of our privacy we give away. They/We are leaving traces behind that are easily collected and saved in multiple places all over the world, tracks that can be used for all the wrong reasons. My main concern is that, however hard we/they try we will never get rid of, or be able to delete internet actions of the past. All the traces left behind will be stuck in cyberspace like tattoos.
Companies are sharing data about us in the interest of understanding ouror their preferences better. This information will be used for different purposes further down the line, for what kind of purposes we do not know. The information shared in digital form in one context, according to an initial set of rules, may be presented to the world according to quite another set of rules.
The two major problems are the digital natives’ dossier and their identity. Many digital natives will face a major privacy challenge in future when it comes to all the information they share with each other. They willingly share private information, photos; that are tagged or posts that are posted on their profiles by other friends and their friends. As teachers and parents we have to make our pupils/children stop and think.
We have to make them aware of the norms of what to share with the rest of the world and what not to share. We have to teach them to question the motives of them asking for the information, and make sure they understand how this may affect their life later. We will have to engage and participate and listen to one another and together establish shared positive norms regarding privacy. The person that can do the most to protect their digital privacy is the digital user him- or herself. We have to make sure that we learn them these skills so that they can stay in control of their own life.
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