EXPLORING HOW U.S. K-12 EDUCATION ADDRESSES PRIVACY LITERACY

Abstract

As children grow up immersed in digital environments, scholars and policymakers emphasize the importance of helping children learn how to navigate privacy online. Prior work has found that educators recognize this need for privacy lessons but do not always feel equipped to teach them. Indeed, the term “privacy” has many meanings and the concept of privacy does not easily fit in a specific subject, intersecting with social studies, computer science, media literacy, digital literacy, and digital citizenship. Scholars have begun developing frameworks for privacy education, but such efforts will have a higher chance of success if they can be integrated into existing educational standards. Thus, in this study we are analyzing U.S. K-12 educational standards to understand whether and how they address privacy literacy. Our initial analysis has found that 44 of the 50 U.S. states have implemented educational standards related to privacy, largely as part of library, computer science, or social studies. The main privacy-related topics in state standards include being careful about posting information online and managing passwords. These preliminary findings suggest that while privacy is part of many state education standards, there are opportunities to help educators bring a more nuanced approach to privacy into their classrooms.