Plans are afoot for schools to teach children about the potential dangers of Facebook and the internet from next spring, according to a report in The Telegraph.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said it is hoping to develop lesson plans for teachers in time for next term. They will be provided with resources on the potential risks of posting information online, and also explaining to primary and secondary pupils the rights they have to demand that websites delete their data, and to access other information that companies or the government holds about them.
Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, said that children needed to be taught that they had rights and that savvier consumers would mean web companies “had to start treating their customers like grown-ups”. Mr Graham was speaking at the launch of a report by the think tank Demos called The Data Dialogue. The research – sponsored by O2 – found that one in five adults believe they will be uncomfortable about the amount of data they are asked to share over the next decade. Just 27% of adults currently saw the benefit of sharing their information with supermarkets, even though nearly nine out of ten held loyalty cards.
O2's CEO Ronan Dunne said that companies had “failed to prove to consumers that there was real value in sharing their data”.
