ABSTRACT
The internet as a medium, the technologies that support it, the media that serve as the interface between the public and private spheres and the mobile devices that connect us and locate us within an ecosystem that is constantly being built and updated present a world of opportunities for prolific civic participation. Developing participation skills involves increasing cooperation based on (among other aspects) awareness of the role that social media play in amplifying human action, and intelligent use of networks that boosts trust in them. However, there are also many specific challenges posed by these environments, especially facing younger people.
Based on a literature review dealing with the practices of European and North American teenagers and a qualitative analysis of three focus groups of Portuguese teenagers, it has been found that young people tend to use a set of privacy control strategies, although they are weak strategies.
The study carried out also reveals a false feeling of control over privacy, with young people highlighting that the danger posed by social networks (including, for some, serious situations that cause a violation of privacy) depends largely on the choices made by those who use them and what they post on them. They therefore demonstrate a lack of awareness about invisible or imagined audiences, as well as the characteristics of social media. Finally, and in relation to the above, the idea that there is an awareness, albeit a diffuse awareness, of the risks inherent to using social networks prevails, but it does not lead people to use all the appropriate behaviour.
Based on these findings, we present a proposed syllabus for educating for privacy designed for young people in secondary education aged 13-17 with the aim of developing: i) digital literacy skills, which include knowledge about content remaining on the internet, the reality of digital footprints, the ambiguity and complexity of privacy policies, among others, and steps that include exercising critical evaluation, training economy of attention and self-regulation of learning strategies; ii) ethical and axiological skills, namely respect for oneself and for others in digital ecosystems; and iii) social skills translated into civic, responsible participation on new media. Learning focused on students will also be favoured, using strategies such as guided discovery, problem solving, case studies and cooperative learning.
What is original about this proposal is that it is part of the broader scope of education for new citizenship, understood as a process that involves the different aspects of the human person and that should tend to move towards/culminate in common, consented public action. It is not only about helping young people develop awareness about the opportunities offered by new media and the ability to deal with them in terms of exposing themselves appropriately in the public space, but also providing them with the tools to exercise their citizenship more effectively as part of their personal development.
