Beginner
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
+75 XP

Consent, Privacy and Your Personal Information

Explore situations where sharing personal information or images requires consent from everyone involved. Learn why people who did not post still have rights over their data and images. Create your own principle for respectful sharing.

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    1 - Start ~3 mins

    Illustration for StartYou already have ways of judging whose work something is and when credit is needed. Today the question shifts from whose work to whose life.

    You will sort everyday sharing situations and work out when another person's consent is needed before something goes online, even if they never pressed share themselves.

    2 - Examine and Discuss ~7 mins

    Illustration for Examine and discussLook at this invented moment together: Aoife films her friend Conor slipping on the wet footpath outside the school gate. The clip is funny. Conor is laughing at the time. That evening Aoife wants to put it on a story her whole year group can see.

    Talk it through:

    1. Who is in the content or named by it?
    2. Did they clearly agree to this share, in this place, with this audience?
    3. What could go wrong for them if it travels further than expected?

    Personal information means anything that can identify someone or is private about them: a name, a face, a school, a location, a message, a photo or a clip of them.

    Key point

    Consent means a clear yes to this share, with this audience, given freely and with enough understanding of where it will go.

    Key point

    The person who posts is not the only person with rights. If you appear in a photo, a clip or a chat screenshot, you have a say in whether that gets shared, even if you never opened the app.

    3 - Hands-on: Whose Consent Do You Need? ~14 mins

    Sort each invented sharing situation into one of three boxes: Fine to share, Ask first, or Never without clear consent.

    In pairs, decide a box for each card and be ready to justify with the three questions. You have 4 minutes, then we lock them as a class.

    Key point

    For every card, be ready to say:

    1. Who is in the content or named by it?
    2. Did they clearly agree to this share, in this place, with this audience?
    3. What could go wrong for them if it travels further than expected?
    Tip

    There is a defensible home for each card, but the reasoning is the point. If the class disagrees, argue it out and only then lock the placement.

    Whose consent do you need?

    4 - Your Turn ~8 mins

    From the sort you just did, write one clear principle in your own words about when another person's consent matters before you share.

    Before you finish, check
    • One sentence, not a paragraph
    • It names whose consent (the people in or named by the content)
    • It makes clear why the people in or named by the content get a say, not only the person who posts
    • It works for more than one of today's cards, not only a single case
    • You could use it next week without needing the teacher to explain it
    Example

    Example shape (write your own, do not copy this): "If someone else is in it or it was meant to stay private, I ask before I share."

    5 - Make Sense ~5 mins

    Hear two or three principles from the class. Notice what they have in common.

    Key point

    The critical point: privacy and data privacy are not only about what you post about yourself. Other people have rights over their face, their words, their location and their private messages. Consent is how you respect those rights before content moves to a new audience.

    Watch out

    A reaction in the moment is not the same as a clear yes to this share, with this audience. Silence, a laugh, or "they won't mind" is not consent.

    Tip

    A useful test before you share: who is in this, who might be identified from it, and have they clearly agreed to this share?

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