I was delighted today to hear that children in England will, by 2011, be taught about keeping themselves safe on the internet as part of the school curriculum. This is really good news, not just to protect children from engaging with ‘the wrong sort’ on the internet, but as a side effect of protecting privacy, young people will learn to avoid doing things on the internet that may affect their futures. Employers do look at what people have done on the internet before offering jobs you know!

So what is the downside? My apologies to those friends of mine who are teachers, but most of you will confess to having relatively little knowledge about the internet in comparison to the students you teach. How then can you educate young people about the dangers of the internet and privacy if you don’t understand it? To be successful, I think the educators will need education too.