Description / Objective: Students will explore what information about them self is appropriate to share online by making the distinction between personal information (safe) and private information (unsafe) when filling out a profile.

Vocabulary:

• Profile: Information you are asked to provide in order to create an account
• Personal information (safe): information that is safe to provide
• Private information (unsafe): information that you should never provide

 Activity:

1. Ask the class to share the names of websites (especially gaming ones) that they access. Mark the names on the board.
2. Now ask them to think of questions that they were asked to answer in order to be able to play those games. Mark them on the board. What is your name, your age, your gender, your email address, your phone number, where you live, your favorite food, your favorite color, your pets name, etc….
3. Sample questions can be:
4. In pairs, think of the questions (posted on the board) that were asked in order to play the web game. Ask each pair to separate the questions in to two groups one being Private information (unsafe) and the other being Personal information (safe).
5. Divide a chart paper into two columns with the heading Personal information (safe) in one column and Private information (unsafe) in the other. Personal information (safe): Favorite color, favorite food, favorite animal, country you live in, etc… all questions that have a broad answer.
6. Private information (unsafe): Your full name, your address, your phone number, your school name, your school address, parent’s credit card number, your date of birth, etc… All questions that have a specific answer.
7. Ask the class to share how they have classified the questions. As the pairs share, mark down their answers in the correct column. Answers can resemble the following:
8. Tell the class that while it is okay to share some information about yourself on the internet, other information isn’t. The questions that are asked to be answered in the Private information (unsafe) column are not alright to share for several reasons. The private information given can be traced back to you. The private information given can be found by strangers and put to no good use such as identity theft or fraud. Remind the students of digital footprints and that any information placed on the internet can never be fully erased.

Additional Resources:  privacy_playground_guide_ 2015 (mediasmarts.ca)