Youth and privacy in a networked world.

• Author: Luhtanen, Melissa L.
• Position: Feature Report on Youth and the Law

In today's increasingly networked environment, technological advances have had a huge impact on the nature and boundaries of our private lives. With the click of a mouse, we have virtually unregulated and unrestricted access to infinite sources of information without ever coming face to face with another human being. Youth have incorporated this technology into their daily lives and used it to enhance their learning, communicate with friends, and navigate through life. However, the facelessness of the Internet can result in a perceived sense of anonymity and privacy, when in fact our actions, interests, and identities are under more surveillance than ever before. With the development of digital tracking, data mining, and wireless communications technology, personal privacy is becoming increasingly threatened and adequate legislation has been slow to follow. While technology has made the world more accessible to us, it has made us more accessible to the world as well. Since youth are so at ease with technology, they are also most vulnerable to this issue.

There is no denying that technology is playing an increasingly important role in the lives of young people. According to a 2005 study of Grade 9 to 11 students, Young Canadians in a Wired World Phase II by V. Steeves (www.media-awareness.ca), young people are avid users of technology. Young Canadians are more connected than ever before. Ninety-four percent of young people have access to the Internet in their homes, while 23% of young people have their own cell phones, often equipped with text messaging capabilities and digital cameras. Youth use the Internet to extend their existing social networks and develop new ones within their communities. Twenty-one percent of students in Grades 7 to 11 have reported meeting an Internet friend online, and 72% said that it was a good experience.

New technologies have the ability to affect both identity development and our personal freedom to control the parts of our identity to which others have access. On one hand, new technologies provide young people with a forum to explore their interests and identities by improving access to information and by facilitating communications with others. On the other hand, new technologies can enable access to information that individuals may or may not want to be accessible. Privacy rights can protect this information but only to the extent that laws are enforceable.

In Canada, privacy rights are protected by...