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posted by martyb on Thursday February 21 2019, @08:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the 1984-meets-the-panopticon dept.

When Kids Realize Their Whole Life Is Already Online

Not all kids react poorly to finding out they’ve been living an unwitting life online. Some are thrilled. In fourth grade, Nate searched his name and discovered that he was mentioned in a news article about his third-grade class making a giant burrito. “I didn’t know,” he said. “I was surprised, really surprised.” But he was pleased with his newfound clout. “It made me feel famous … I got to make new friends by saying, ‘Oh, I’m in a newspaper [online],’” he said. Ever since, he has Googled himself every few months, hoping to find things.

[...] Once kids have that first moment of realization that their lives are public, there’s no going back. Several teens and tweens told me this was the impetus for wanting to get their own social-media profiles, in an effort to take control of their image. But plenty of other kids become overwhelmed and retreat. Ellen said that anytime someone has a phone out around her now, she’s nervous that her photo could be taken and posted somewhere. “Everyone’s always watching, and nothing is ever forgotten. It’s never gone,” she said.

[...] Still, Jane—who, like all the other kids in this story, spoke to me with her parents’ permission—worries. She’s too young to navigate the web on her own, but she feels that a lot of what’s out there on the internet about her is beyond her control. “I don’t really like how people know things about me, and I don’t even know them,” she said. “Thousands and millions of things are out there maybe.” Andy, also 7, is always on the lookout for people who might take unflattering photos of him. He once caught his mother taking a photo of him sleeping and, another time, doing a silly dance. He immediately told her not to post it on Facebook, and she obliged. He felt the photos were embarrassing.

Remember your search engine is watching you when you search for yourself.


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  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday February 21 2019, @06:17PM (1 child)

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday February 21 2019, @06:17PM (#804600)

    The problem is that nobody cares who you or I are. I prefer to keep it that way.

    But you become a public figure it just piss off a "journalist" with an agenda... And suddenly everyone you ever said gets brought up.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 21 2019, @11:18PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday February 21 2019, @11:18PM (#804772)

    As when you can be asked to quit your job, because 35 years priori you used to be an immature teen who found it pretty funny to pose in blackface with a KKK guy ?

    (note that I think the guy should get fired for his inept response to the photo, not for the photo itself)