Embargoed until 12.01am, 31 August 2010

"Young people are using Facebook and Twitter all the time. They're putting a lot of personal information out there and online. Faced with the challenges of living in today's digital world, we wanted to find out what young people's take on privacy was. So, we got together a group of secondary school students to find out. From the beginning it was clear that these young people do care about privacy," said Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff.

Together the youth group produced an educational kit about privacy for other students to use, which was launched today at Mana College, Porirua by Hon Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, MP for Mana.

"You need to think about what you're putting online and who you're letting see your information. It's the same with your cell phone - you've got to make sure you're replying to someone you know," said Tessa Ralston, a member of the privacy youth advisory group.

"There are so many organisations that have your personal details - I hadn't really thought about it before - but you need to know what they're going to do with your information and you want to keep track of it. If you're having any hassles, you need to know your rights and who can help you," said student, Kelly Parker.

"We'd heard the many stories about young people putting photos and personal information online only to find later that these things had been seen by people they didn't expect - whether it was parents, people who weren't ‘real' friends, employers and sometimes scammers," said Ms Shroff.

"We were also aware that there wasn't a lot available for young people to help them protect and control their digital identities. Our overseas partners had produced some good things, but we were keen to know what young New Zealanders wanted to see - and indeed what they thought about privacy. Who better to give privacy messages to young people than young people themselves?" said Ms Shroff.

Based on the three ideas of awareness, consent and appropriate use of information, the students developed the kit for schools. They came up with concepts for a poster and a brochure and made a short film.

"We think that students and teachers will have lots of interesting and informative discussions about privacy issues and learn to think more about how they can look after and control their personal information," said Ms Shroff.


ENDS

For further information contact Cathy Henry on 021 509 735.

Note:

• The kit includes a short film, posters, brochures, guidance notes for presenters, privacy stories, activities and a quiz. It is available to secondary schools. Go to www.privacy.org.nz/youth for more information.
• The youth privacy advisory group will be available for interviews from 10.30 - 11.30am.