Survey on Privacy in Media and Information Literacy with Youth Perspectives

"Media and information literacy (MIL) is, amongst many things, a defense of one's privacy. By this we mean that since MIL seeks to promote a deeper understanding of the ways in which media and technology enable or limit a person's ability to live with freedom and personal agency..."

This report seeks to provide clarity on the issue of how media and information literacy (MIL) and privacy intersect. It combines findings from two related research studies carried out for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The first is research into youth perspectives on privacy through a survey designed as part of a larger study on citizens' response to MIL competencies. From 100 countries, 2,300 young people aged 14-25 were engaged in a wider exercise of training and research. Of these, 1,735 completed the questionnaire, including the section on privacy. The second is a survey on privacy in MIL programmes globally. This involved 231 respondents involved in teaching privacy in connection with MIL. "Ultimately, this report aims to provide conceptual, development and policy recommendations to foster privacy in MIL, while enabling the critical engagement of people, including young women and men, in an environment conducive to sustainable development and to freedom of expression online and offline." It is part of the UNESCO Series on Internet Freedom (see Related Summaries, below).

An overview section sets the scene, explaining that Joseph Cannataci, Special Rapporteur on Privacy for the United Nations, positions privacy as one of the three pillars necessary for the free unhindered development of personality, the other two being freedom of expression and freedom of information. MIL is an antecedent for individuals to be able to understand, protect, and defend their privacy and to respect the privacy of others, at least in terms of informational privacy. MIL is "a set of competencies that empowers citizens to access, retrieve, understand, evaluate and use, to create as well as share information and media content in all formats, using various tools, in a critical, ethical and effective way." In brief, the competencies include:

1. Recognise and articulate a need for information and media
2. Understand the role and functions of media and other information providers, including those on the internet, in democratic societies and development
3. Understand the conditions under which those functions can be fulfilled
4. Synthesise or operate on the ideas abstracted from content
5. Locate and access relevant information and media content
6. Critically evaluate information and the content of media and other information providers, including those on the internet, in terms of authority, credibility, and current purpose and potential risks
7. Extract and organise information and media content
8. Ethically and responsibly use information and communicate their understanding or newly created knowledge to an audience or readership in an appropriate form and medium
9. Be able to apply information and communication technology (ICT) skills in order to process information and produce user-generated content
10. Engage with information, media and technology for self-expression, rights, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, democratic participation, gender equality, defending privacy and advocating against all forms of inequalities, hate, intolerance and violent extremism

Chapter 1 proposes how privacy in MIL should be framed in the development context. It starts by suggesting that a rethinking of MIL training design is needed - one that focuses on not only individuals and the competencies they need but also on groups and institutional policies and strategies. This more systemised method for the dissemination of MIL, encompassing privacy, has implications for sustainable development. The framework for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is used as a basis to delineate the social, economic, and environmental relevance of privacy in MIL. The political and gender equality perspectives of development are also highlighted. The sketches of MIL courses that include privacy could be the beginnings of a comprehensive listing/database of pragmatic actions to inform stakeholders who would like to undertake similar initiatives.

Chapter 2 examines what young people think about privacy and safety online. In short, the majority of youth surveyed indicate that privacy is important to them; from the sample of 1,735, 74% strongly agree and 23% agree. A considerable proportion, 17%, are not sure if they have or agree that they have the right to publish certain personal information of other. Privacy in connection with government and business is of concern to young people, but it is not clear that they have a full grasp of the implications. This area requires additional and ongoing research. Young people appeared prepare to trade some of their privacy to ensure individual security and safety online. It is clear, however, that they do not subscribe to fearmongering about online risks but favour empowerment through training to self-protect while capitalising on the benefits that the internet brings. Despite more than half of the respondent youth's concerns about internet harm, the bulk of respondents do share personal information online. Further analysis and research is needed into the correlation of youth knowledge of privacy and MIL with their attitudes and practices.

Chapter 3 presents 7 key findings on privacy in MIL courses, which point to a lack of focus on the topic of privacy in education environments addressing MIL. The findings paint a picture in which educators have a diversity of understanding of: what constitutes privacy; the issues connected to privacy; and how to best convey the elements of privacy to their students. On the one hand, it is perhaps not surprising that educators are ill-equipped to bring the topic of privacy into their classrooms, since many of the technologies bringing about privacy concerns were not invented when the educators were obtaining their own degrees. Educators are also concerned that deeper discussions about privacy may veer into discussions about more sensitive topics, or be interpreted as an alert to overly cautious parents. Throughout the survey process, educators affirmed the need for the topic to be addressed, due to the abundance of time youth spend online and the importance for youth to understand that once private information is released, the action can rarely be undone. That said, most of the educators interviewed for the MIL study have simply backed away from teaching or addressing this topic.

Chapter 4 expounds on this scenario and explores the deeper implications of how this affects youth. However, there are opportunities for improvement and, therefore, the chapter also includes specific recommendations for action. The recommendations integrate five areas of need suggested by the data points in this report: (i) youth empowerment; (ii) research; (iii) curriculum; (iv) professional development; and (v) resources. For example, one suggestion: "Involving youth is vital given two findings. Firstly, despite the importance of privacy to the young respondents, they report that they do share private information online and...many do favour an open Internet. Secondly, the young people surveyed note self-empowerment, by acquiring MIL-related competencies, as the most potent means to be more critical and discriminatory online. Therefore, a logical response to the growth of privacy challenges online should be an equal and even stronger proliferation of MIL training for youth. The MIL MOOC [massive open online course] that formed part of this research included elements of online privacy, security and safety issues. While most of the young persons surveyed reside in urban areas, the Internet is slowly penetrating rural and remote communities. Purposeful and creative multimedia strategies, online and offline, should be developed to reach young people in rural and remote communities with interventions like MIL MOOCs. This should be pursued before universal access to the Internet is reached." Another example suggestion is to create, adapt, and disseminate "toolkits" for educators, designed based on evidence, users' needs, and requirements, as well as media and technology professionals and learners. These toolkits could contain basic information about what elements of privacy are most important for MIL competencies, how to integrate these in teaching and learning, and annotated resources that could be used in the process.