1. Teacher's Guide to
Online Privacy Issues
Establishing Context

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Implications for Teaching &
Learning
Our students
are
digital learners.
They want to:
create
collaborate
share
interact
Social Media in Education - Teaching Digital Natives in 2011. Uploaded by hollyclarksd.
Retrieved July 9, 2013 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zKdPOHhNfY

5. 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

6. 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@N00/43995656
Found on flickrcc.net

7. 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

8. Online Privacy: The Teen
Perspective
Teen 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).

9. 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@N03/8465390293
Found on flickrcc.net

10. 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@N03/4687262861
Found on flickrcc.net

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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@N00/4886454080
Found on flickrcc.net

14. 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@N07/2414317157
Found on flickrcc.net
Digital Citizenship...

15. References
Blowers, 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