We all have the right to stay private everywhere we go, digital or otherwise.
I recall being taught by adults around me about how to interact with the Internet at a young age. I’d get lessons during computer classes in elementary school about the dangers of sharing our private information. I’d see messages spread through child-oriented channels like PBS about never revealing your real name or age. This was the early 2000s, and the Internet was still a very new thing. As with all new things, people still approached it with caution.
In the digital age today, I think adults expect that adolescents have an instinctual knowledge of how to act online. Children and teens grow up having the digital space right at their fingertips, but with no precautions instilled in them. Learning to keep private is at the back of their minds.
Lindsey C. Kim says, “We pay little attention to our intentional traces of information, and even less to our unintentional ones,” in her article about being private in digital technologies. I won’t go on to say that I’m perfect at being private online. I’ve shared my age and the state I live in sometimes, but I learn as I grow. I know when it’s appropriate to show my real face, and when it’s not; I’m aware of which sites I allow to take cookies from my data, and which ones I should clean out after a while.
When I interact in public spaces, it’s worrying to see children as young as nine freely saying they’re nine. I balk at how easily they share everything about themselves. Anybody can track and take advantage of their digital footprint. Parents often don’t have the time to teach them how to stay private and safe online.
I think it’s important to remember now that we can choose to be private in a technological world, and we have that right too. Sometimes, even I forget that I don’t have to be honest with strangers about who I am. I can make up a name, an age, and where I live because I don’t own anybody online anything about the real me.
Leave a Reply