Apr 6, 2020
We all want the best for our children and we all want to protect
them from the worst but we could all be inadvertently handing them
a bomb when we share too much, or anything, about them online.
This is the message of the anthropologist Dr Veronica Barassi who
spoke to me for Show Me The Way. She explains that the "more data
we are producing about children, the more that we are creating them
as datafied citizens and if we create them as datafied citizens,
most probably we are stripping them of the right to self-define in
the future". This could in turn impact whether they get health
insurance, a loan..or even a job.
Dr Barassi explores social media data, education data (like google
classroom), health data and home data - so all the data gathered
from digital assistants and AI within the home.
It's important she believes, to emphasise it's about the amount of
data that is being collected, not about the amount of data that is
being shared.
This is definitely worth a listen if you're in lockdown with your
children, home schooling, distance learning, using Alexa to help
with homework or even posting pictures on social media
platforms.
Child Data Citizen