Conceptualising privacy online: what do, and what should, children understand?

Post-Cambridge-Analytica, and post-GDPR, children are becoming increasingly aware of how their data is being used online but there are still limits to their digital literacy. In this post, Sonia Livingstone, Mariya Stoilova and Rishita Nandagiri discuss how they are conceptualising issues of privacy and personal data in their latest ICO-funded research into children’s understanding of privacy and data use online. Sonia Livingstone is Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Mariya Stoilova is a Post-doctoral Research Officer on the Global Kids Online project at LSE, and an Associate Lecturer in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Rishita Nandagiri is a PhD Candidate at the LSE’s Department of Social Policy (Demography and Population Studies) and an external Graduate Associate member of the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Technologies and Health, the University of Sussex.