School kids get to grips with privacy through YouTube


28 Jan 2008

To coincide with European Data Protection Day 2008, two new initiatives, one involving online video-sharing site YouTube, are being introduced today by the Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes to help young people become familiar with the concepts of data protection and privacy in a mobile, connected world.

Alongside Hawkes, the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, is this morning unveiling the new programmes at Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, Dublin as one of the initiatives involves integrating information on data protection and privacy into the secondary level Civic, Social and Political Education Course (CSPE) and other subjects which it may relate to.

The other programme being launched today is a competition in association with YouTube which has the theme of ‘Privacy in the 21st Century’ and encourages young people aged 15-25 to submit video clips illustrating their concept of privacy and what it should entail.

European Data Protection Day is dedicated to raising awareness among EU citizens on what kind of personal data is collected about them, what happens to this data and what rights they have concerning the storage, processing and use of this data.

The aim of the day is to help EU citizens know that under both EU law and the national law within their own country, they have certain rights regarding their personal data.

An EU survey carried out in 2003 showed that while 60pc of citizens were concerned about the issue of protection of their personal privacy, 70pc felt they didn’t know much about what was being done in their own country to protect their rights.