MediaSmarts Tags - Privacy

CBS News reported that, in 2007, companies spent almost $17 billion marketing to children. [1] In 2011, meanwhile, EPM Communications found that the 13- to 19-year-old cohort of American teens possessed approximately $200 billion of buying power, making them a significant market for advertisers and corporations. [2]

Despite what many adults believe privacy matters to youth. More and more, though, youth are finding that their actions online are monitored – by parents, teachers, and corporations.

Someone encountering the Internet for the first time might be forgiven for assuming it was created specifically for teenagers. Indeed, the Internet could reasonably be said to have been aging backwards since its birth – the domain first of scientists and the military, then of university students in the 1990s and now children and teenagers.

Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People
By Michael Strangelove
University of Toronto Press , 265 pages, $29.95

The YouTube video “Ultimate Dog Tease” has jumped from 15 million to 37 million views since the beginning of May 2011. The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” has hit 67 million views since it was launched on YouTube. These two videos have more followers than some TV shows. They're fun, they're silly and, like YouTube as a medium, they are worth celebrating.

Parents and older siblings can take preschoolers on the Internet, visit websites and play online games. At this age, adults have an important role to play in teaching safe Internet use and monitoring their children's reactions to online material.

Level: Grades 2 to 5

Author: Valerie Steeves

Overview

This interactive online module takes students through a CyberTour of twelve mock websites to test their savvy surfing skills. 

It includes a 20-question online quiz that provides additional food for thought about the Web issues that the brother and sister team Josie and Joseph Cool encounter.

Educational games have had a troubled history. At their worst, they have been neither educational nor games; even at their best they have faced scepticism from educators, game designers and especially children. The standard response to being given an educational game – This is supposed to be fun? – might be compared to finding a Brussels sprout at the centre of a Tootsie Pop. Teachers, meanwhile, are rightly concerned that the educational content of these games might be outweighed by the entertainment value.

Canada’s public sector is regulated at the federal level by the Privacy Act. The Privacy Act safeguards individual’s privacy by explicitly stating the individual’s right to access information about him/herself that is held by government institutions and Crown corporations. The Act also defines how these institutions can collect and use personal information.