Been busy launching our Digital Explorers Club and Digital Quests recently. One of the first to sign up was a Y7 student, aged 11/12 who quickly spotted she was likely to have problems creating accounts for herself with some of the online resource providers since she didn’t meet the lower age requirement of 13. We discussed this at length, beginning with COPPA, exploring the reasons why this age had been chosen and how we might attempt to address the issue through parental involvement.
She wasn’t happy! Her point wasn’t that young people might need some form of protection in online transactions, but that age itself oughtn’t to be the deciding factor. She pointed out that there may be some people younger than 13 who are perfectly able to weigh the risks versus benefits of giving personal data away online, whilst others who are older (and yes even adults!) might be poorly placed to make those decisions. She then went away, scrutinised Google’s T&C and emailed me pointing out two passages she thought worthy of particular note, commenting that whilst these rules may be all well and good for legal reasons and were in Google’s interests, they were actually of little help to a young person keen to make good use of the resources the Internet could offer her.
Naivety? Sure. But with that degree of tenacity, I can’t help feeling that that someone’s out to make a difference.
I also hope she signs up for the Crytography course on Coursera she says she’s interested in. It might distract her from pushing my enfeebled mind beyond its comfort zone!
Photo: cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by wiccked: http://flickr.com/photos/wiccked/124154857/
Practically In the pICTure 