Teaching young people about “privacy” has serious defects if the goal is to promote children’s online safety. This commentary points out some the key problems to programs and educational modules with this privacy orientation. Privacy is an abstract and complicated concept, whose norms are in flux, making it difficult to impart clear, relevant, consensus-based messages. We also know very little about how privacy concepts develop in childhood and at what age and in what sequence, making it hard to know what to teach and when. Privacy skills are not necessarily the most important ones for preventing most online harms, including the most serious ones, casting doubt on whether they should receive priority over other prevention skills. Research has also not clearly established connections between many privacy practices and reductions in harm. Most privacy messaging has not been evaluated for how well it is learned, applied and what forms of safety it enhances. As an alternative, the promotion of online safety is best organized, not around privacy, but around the specific harms that educators and children themselves are trying to prevent. The highest priority of these are sexual exploitation, peer bullying and harassment. Such educational safety programs are best built from the foundation of evidence-based programs related to parallel offline dangers.

如果目标是促进儿童的在线安全，那么向年轻人传授“隐私”知识就存在严重缺陷。该评论指出了具有这种隐私导向的程序和教育模块的一些关键问题。隐私是一个抽象而复杂的概念，其规范在不断变化，因此很难传达清晰、相关、基于共识的信息。我们也对隐私概念在童年时期如何发展以及在什么年龄和顺序方面知之甚少，因此很难知道该教什么以及何时教。隐私技能不一定是防止大多数在线危害（包括最严重的危害）最重要的技能，这让人怀疑它们是否应该优先于其他预防技能。研究也没有明确建立许多隐私做法与减少伤害之间的联系。大多数隐私消息都没有对其学习、应用的程度以及它增强的安全形式进行评估。作为替代方案，最好组织促进在线安全，而不是围绕隐私，而是围绕教育者和儿童自己试图防止的具体危害。其中最优先考虑的是性剥削、同伴欺凌和骚扰。此类教育安全计划最好建立在与并行离线危险相关的循证计划的基础上。其中最优先考虑的是性剥削、同伴欺凌和骚扰。此类教育安全计划最好建立在与并行离线危险相关的循证计划的基础上。其中最优先考虑的是性剥削、同伴欺凌和骚扰。此类教育安全计划最好建立在与并行离线危险相关的循证计划的基础上。