I'd like to shake them up a bit, show them something creatively "scary" to help them realize the issues that come with giving away data.
Some additional information:
- This is a Western European country (no real issues with privacy since WWII);
- They don't mistrust the government ("Big Brother"-style arguments have little effect);
- They have little financial/working experience (arguments such as "your insurance will cost more" or "your future employer might not hire you" are inefficient);
- They haven't had enough partners to be really concerned about things such as "your future partners will know everyone you went out with".
Some ideas (untested, since not practical):
- Compile a virtual profile with everything publicly available about them, especially photos, which seem to provoke a stronger reaction than factual data such as addresses, names of relatives, etc. Problem: requires too much manual effort.
- Find out their e-mail addresses (if publicly available) and trigger "Forgot password"-style messages, to simulate them being targeted by hackers. Problem: borderline ethical.
- Apply some form of spear-phishing using information publicly available, such as "Hi Jane, this is Mary Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll have to resort to listing some actual cases of teens abused due to exposing their data, which is not as efficient ("that would never happen to ME!").
Educating them in a factual way that doesn't appeal to their emotions is a better tactic, in my opinion. Perhaps a research project where they actively find all the publicly available data on themselves that they can, combined with lessons about the impact of data leakage on regular people would be sufficient? I don't know.
In the end, teenagers (like everyone else) will make their own decisions about these things. Even if they make decisions that you and I consider foolish, they have the right to decide for themselves. You job is just to ensure that they have the information and understanding they need to make informed decisions, not to evangelize a particular stance.
Watch the video to see how it works. Especially the predictive analytics may be a powerful way to provide insight into how much of ourselves we give away while surfing the web.
A fifteen year old has been hearing adults prattle on about this stuff since the day they started school. That’s 2010. That’s Chrome. And Facebook. It’s mature as tech backed by billion$.
The ones out of touch are those of us imagining there are still horses in the barn. Or to put it another way, it’s a room full of smart people and everyone should take that seriously. This I learned from talking to my teen. Instead of at them.
> Find out their e-mail addresses (if publicly available)
That's probably against data protection rules set by the school.