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| Photo: Wesley Fryer |
Try
this… stand in front of a roomful of 12- and 13-year olds and deliver the
following news: “Kids, a team of
researchers will be coming to your school to monitor your every move. These
observers will record where you go (including the restroom, lunch area,
playground, etc.), how long you spend there, whom you talk to, and what you do.
The results of this research will help your school administrator customize the
school to better meet your needs.” As you deliver this news, don’t forget
to watch their expressions transform from uninterested to curious to disbelieving
and, finally, to outrage!
Okay,
by now you see where this is going. There’s no research company. But this
lesson on “Privacy” from Common Sense Media’s free online digital media curriculum did get the attention of this class. So when they learned that this infringement
on their privacy wasn’t actually going to happen at their school, but was happening every day in a place where they spend more time than in school -- cyberspace -- well, let’s just say they weren’t happy. In fact, several students summed up
their displeasure as follows, “That’s creepy!
It is creepy. In a front page story from last Sunday’s L.A. Times (Watching a Screen? It Watches You Too) Kevin Bankston, from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation says, “[e]ssentially , each of us is being tailed”.
Funny thing is, most of us, like these 7th graders, really don’t
think too much about it. Maybe that’s because the upside of all this surveillance
can be rather nice- data collection of our behavior patterns allows
companies to target us with customized information, like ads for shoes we like
or cars we might be likely to drive. This gathering of our personal data
happens so invisibly we scarcely notice it. However, when we stop to scrutinize
how it happens and then consider just how much information is mined
from our simplest online activities you have to admit it is, well,
creepy.
Fortunately for this class of 7th graders (who are hopefully home at this very moment examining their Whyville privacy policies), they get to consider all this in
class. Our school, Journey School in Aliso Viejo, CA, has made the bold move of
incorporating Common Sense Media’s curriculum into all of its middle school
classes. Why does this matter? Because in a few years these students will be
able to vote. Maybe they’ll actually pay attention to (and understand) all the privacy-related
legislation that continually fails to become law because powerful companies like
FaceBook and Google don’t want to relinquish access to our data. Or maybe they’ll decide they like their
information perfectly designed to meet their needs. Either way, at least
they’ll be informed citizens of their digital world.
