Tips by kids for kids

Reading Time: Minutes

Decision-making skills:

On the right path with good tips

Children and young people use digital media and in particular the Internet to interact, for self-representation, and of course to pursue their interests. Appointments, homework, games – everything today runs on the Internet and social networks. But with the speed that images and thoughts can be exchanged come brand new risks. How quickly and unintentionally do we expose our own private information, which suddenly everybody now knows?

Protecting one’s privacy is an important aspect in dealing with digital media. To avoid unpleasant experiences when using new media, it is important to raise awareness among children and young people at an early stage. In this project idea, children get to deal with how to protect their privacy online and learn about what is especially important.

Project procedure

What kinds of stuff are private, actually? Who should know my cell phone number? What do I have to pay attention to when using the Web? In a first step, the learning group or class should brainstorm together (with a moderator) about what privacy is and when, how and why it’s important to protect one’s privacy. Then, in small groups, the children formulate and concise tips that they can present to others on a (digitally) self-designed poster, for example.

To do so, the children gather around several tables in groups and discuss their opinions and experiences on the subject of privacy. “What should I pay attention to? What techniques or people can I turn to regarding important issues?”

Then, the children create visuals for their tips in the form of drawings, sketches or pictograms. The resulting posters are then presented to the class and discussed once again.

At the beginning, the children split into groups and get labelled moderation cards with words that are central to the topic. In the ensuing discussion, the latter words are placed around the word “privacy” on the table. The following impulse questions can be helpful:

- Do you know what privacy means?
- What is personal information anyway?
- Have you ever changed your security settings on your phone?
- Do you think it’s a good thing that everyone is always taking pictures?

Recording results: Moderation cards
Social form: Group discussion

After the children have had their exchange in their groups, they get craft materials (markers, glue, scissors and blank moderation cards). Now the groups are asked to put their thoughts into concrete and concise tips to present on a poster.

Recording results: Posters with tips
Social form: Group work

Once the tips are ready, the posters are presented to the rest of the class, who then hang them up in order.

Recording results: Presentation
Social form: Presentation to whole class

Learning objectives in the areas of competence

This project idea can be used by educational institutions for pursuing the following learning objectives in these general skill areas:

Getting children and adolescents to deal with the topic of privacy based on real-world experience and for them to train their ability to reflect and make good choices. Thus they will be able to approach the topic from different perspectives and to develop their own points of view. They will be able to use their own experiences to act in challenging situations.

The children and adolescents

are capable of discussing without prejudging the results.

can identify problems and issues.

The children and adolescents

recognize what is important when using media,

monitor their own behavior.

The children and adolescents

can formulate their own opinions,

exchange arguments and learn to find a joint solution.

The children and adolescents

assess challenges based on valid values and their own findings,

use media with care, both for themselves and others.