Digital Natives: Staying safe
This week the Digital Natives team took a look at online privacy and safety and the related topic of digital aggressors.
On Monday, Digital Natives intern Diana Kimball explored the anonymous world inhabited by Internet trolls:
What does a “digital aggressor” look like? Unfortunately, that’s exactly the problem: it’s often hard to tell. The internet, as an environment that accepts anonymity, often plays host to anonymous interactions. Anonymity cloaks the individuals who produce and post words and images; the seeming lack of consequence for anonymous actions can be emboldening. In certain repressive states, the potential for anonymity provided by the internet can embolden individuals in positive ways: to speak out against social ills, to report on systematic cruelty. But in other cases, anonymity provides the mask for cruelty itself. CONTINUED...
Today, Sarah Zhang tells us about Data Privacy Day and provides some valuable tips about online privacy:
Take out your calendars for the new year! Intel is sponsoring its second Data Privacy Day on January 28, 2009. Data Privacy Day, which is sponsored by a combination of tech companies, government organizations, and academic groups, aims to facilitate discussions on privacy, especially with regards to teenagers and social networking sites. The three-part framework includes educational materials, events, and government involvement. It was also nice to see the Digital Natives project, which has been active in all three of the above components, under their resources for data privacy issues. CONTINUED...
For more on privacy and safety check out chapters 3 and 4 of John Palfrey and Urs Gasser's Born Digital, and for more information on digital aggressors check out chapter 9. You can also join the conversation with the Digital Natives team and others via the Digital Natives site, where you'll find links to the project wiki, blog, YouTube channel, and many other social tools and resources like the Born Digital responses page.
