Help. My kid is clueless about online privacy
I know that there’s a lot of concern about kids on the internet and privacy issues. I know kids need to be taught about privacy concerns on the internet and lectured on appropriate behaviours. And of course, they need to be monitored. But I have not paid any attention to the wealth of material out there on the subject. Why? Because my older kid has not yet turned 5. Her internet use has been limited to sites I show her such as pbskids.org or noggin.com.
Last weekend, I plaited her hair while she sat at the computer. Sitting at the computer is one of the few activities that keep her head relatively still while we engage in our weekly (or biweekly) ritual. All my attention was on her hair when she asked, “mommy, why is this page not working?”
At that point, I looked at the screen and saw that she was referring to an error submitting a form. She had followed links that looked interesting to her, and she had clicked on a form in response to a question asked on the site. But she did not select her “State” which was a required field on the form. Hence the error.
The form was innocuous enough, and I was proud that she was able to follow instructions and supply the right information. Neat! I smiled proudly. But at the same time I was alarmed, because I quickly realized that her online privacy training significantly lagged behind her online proficiency.
“Mommy, make it work! I’m trying to answer this question.” I wanted to make it work.
“Let’s take your last name out of the box”, I suggested.
“But mommy!! It says ‘name’”, she replied.
“I know, but your firstname is good enough.” I help her delete her last name while she pouted. I selected the state and submitted.
And it got me thinking. How do I provide online privacy training to a (almost) 5 year old?
