Visible Privacy: Norms, Preferences, and Strategies

This chapter critiques the ways privacy is constructed as an individual choice or responsibility and instead draws attention to the ways privacy and identity are collective and networked via social media. Through an analysis of the ways Facebook’s algorithms and user interface have changed over the years, the chapter traces how young people’s expectations and privacy practices are often at odds with commercial platforms. Additionally it considers how corporate platforms conceive of privacy from a privileged perspective that overlook the risks marginalized young people, and specifically people of colour, face online. Young people employ creative strategies for maintaining degrees of visibility including deliberate disassociation from peers and managing different online identities for different purposes and control of privacy.

Historical Fears: Teens, Technology, and Anxiety

This chapter considers the current moments of moral panic about technology from an historical context and argues that fears are not really about technology, but are driven by broader social changes. New technology and media often cause adults anxiety and are difficult to regulate; social and mobile media are no different. Looking back to youth in the 1920s America, this chapter demonstrates how changes in the role of the family and peer groups lead to social anxieties then and now. Through a discussion of networked publics, the chapter addresses teens’ desires to participate in society in visible ways that offer both risks and opportunities.

Introduction: A Generation at Risk?

This chapter asks: how do expectations of youth, technology, and risk shape policies, practices, and lived experiences? Through an analysis of harm-driven and opportunity-driven expectations, the chapter outlines key concerns related to young people’s digital media practices; specifically the ways privileged understandings of risk create unequal opportunities for marginalized youth. It identifies three disconnections that lead to fear. First, young people’s lived experiences with media differ from sensational fear-driven media narratives and policies. Second, the ways young people value media differ from how adults value digital media. Third, harm-driven narratives focus too overtly on the role of technology in young people’s lives, rather than broader social changes. The chapter aims to shift conversations away from harm and toward opportunity.

Conclusion: Opportunity-Driven Expectations

This chapter considers how we can reframe debates about digital risks and harms in a productive way that considers opportunities and equity. There are at least three connections that contribute to opportunity-driven expectations. First, the lived experiences of youth need to be represented in media narratives and reflected in policies. Second, young people’s practices must be taken seriously by educational institutions. Third, adults should be ready to help young people navigate not only risks, but also opportunities. Without dismissing legitimate concerns to young people’s safety, the chapter argues that we must pay more attention to inequitable opportunities for marginalized youth and do more as a society to empower all students with the digital literacies necessary to leverage media in ways that are beneficial on an individual and societal level.

(Dis)Connected Pathways: Expectations, Goals, and Opportunities

This chapter expands upon the connected learning model to analyse how digital media fit within the learning ecologies for marginalized youth. It argues that after-school clubs and creative media production can potentially serve as risk intervention strategies for young people on the margins of society. However, the research also reveals that outside of traditional higher education, there remain disconnections between students’ aspirations and economic opportunities. Through an in-depth analysis of four immigrant students, the chapter identifies the key connections that help students learn and leverage their passions and creativity for future success. Students’ learning and goals need to be supported and connected via their peers, academics, adults, their home life, personal interests, and extracurricular activities. Although after-school clubs can fill in gaps in learning, it remains imperative that formal education incorporates students’ creativity and interest-based learning, and contributes to the creation of alternative pathways for economic mobility.

Negotiating Control: Distractions, Stress, and Boredom

This chapter compares two competing discourses about the role of mobile media at school: adults’ expectations of control and students’ expectations of trust and negotiation. Controlling or banning mobile media at school is typically justified as a necessary way to minimize distractions or stress. Rather than banning mobile phones and media all together, this chapter argues that schools should help students set healthy boundaries. Second, it demonstrates how students view mobile media as a necessary and beneficial tool for learning. They negotiate restrictions to alleviate boredom, stay connected to peers, and to enhance learning. The chapter concludes with ways schools and students can work together to develop digital literacies that minimize risks and enhance the educational potentials of mobile media.

Policies of Panic: Porn, Predators, and Peers

The chapter analyses select U.S. federal and state policies that aim to regulate young people’s use of technology from the 1990s onward. There have been three waves of panics related to young people’s use of technology: porn, predators, and peers (specifically bullying and sexting). Each concern was fuelled by sensational media attention, and at times, fallacious research. Although policies are often a necessary aspect of regulation, the chapter demonstrates the ways policies often reflect privileged understandings of risk and overlook the unintended consequences of prohibitive regulation, particularly for marginalized populations. Additionally, it argues that other modes of regulation – such as the market and social norms – can be effective modes of balancing risks and opportunities.

Networked Sharing: Participation, Copyright, and Values

This chapter challenges understandings of participatory culture by examining the barriers that prevent some marginalized media creators from sharing their creative media in online spaces. Students cited three reasons why they didn’t want to share their creative content online: fear that someone would steal it, concerns that their work wasn’t professional enough, or they lacked the time and access required to build beneficial online networks. The students’ legitimate concerns reflect the ways learning is embedded within cultural systems and relationships and highlights the need for literacy development and adult guidance in learning how to fully and safely participate online. Although intentional online visibility is accompanied by risk, it can also be beneficial to students’ identities and future aspirations. The chapter makes suggestions for ways that schools can equip students with the necessary digital literacies and protections necessary for them to safely participate in a collaborative manner that is mutually beneficial to students and society.

Access Denied: Information, Knowledge, and Literacy

This chapter analyses the unintended consequences of federal policies that require schools to block students’ access to potentially harmful or objectionable online material. Justifications for blocking online content are often based on perceptions of sexual risks. For many low-income youth, school is one of the primary access points and blocking sexual content perpetuates a lack of sexual education; there needs to be a balance between protection and access. Additionally, this chapter considers the claim that students are at risk of being overloaded with information and misinformation. Rather than blocking information, schools should play a greater role in helping students develop critical digital literacies required to participate in a digital culture: by helping them become critical consumers, responsible contributors, and activists. Lastly, it argues that blocking students’ access to online content is value-laden and often overlooks other risks such as the ways advertising and data collection can also be harmful and exploitative.