ICO wants primary schools to teach data privacy lessons

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has launched a research project that aims to demonstrate the need for information rights issues to be taught in primary and secondary schools.

The ICO said young people should be aware of the threats to their privacy and how to protect themselves, and have a clearer understanding of the practical and legal safeguards that can help them.

The project will also explore how young people can be encouraged to exploit the increasing availability of public information to their advantage.

The ICO has already tried to reach out to young people by including a "youth area" on its web site, releasing a data protection DVD for secondary schools, setting up a presence on online community games web site Habbo Hotel, and launching an annual student brand ambassador campaign.

However, research suggests more must be done to educate young people about their information rights.

Research undertaken as part of law firm Speechly Bircham's youth data protection campaign "i in online" found that, of more than 4,000 young people questioned, 88 per cent of secondary school respondents and 39 per cent of primary school children have a profile on a social networking site.

Despite this, 60 per cent of respondents had not read the privacy policies of the networking sites they use, 32 per cent did not know what a privacy policy was, and 23 per cent said they did not know where to find it.