Not long ago, police and school officials in Old Saybrook, Conn., held a high school assembly on Internet safety. The purpose of the assembly, wrote New Haven Register reporter Susan Misur, was to make students aware of how public their photos, tweets and profiles are online. To make this point, the presentation included a slide show with pictures and updates grabbed from the students’ Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts.
Far from feeling chastened by the presentation, students were outraged. “I kind of thought, ‘It’s like if you put it online, anyone can see it,’ ” one student said. “But then at the same time, it’s like kind of not fair for the police officers to put that on display without their permission and without them knowing.”
The same student told the reporter that kids who weren’t at the presentation were “really mad” when they found out how their content had been used. Others expressed their dismay on Twitter, calling the act “corrupt.”
For those of us over 30, Internet privacy means identity theft and government eavesdropping. Parents fret that their children’s online behavior will make them targets of predators or corporations, or will ruin future academic or employment opportunities.