Privacy Awareness and the Networking Generation

The article discuss social and privacy implications of the access of children to the Internet and to Information Technologies of Communication (ITCs) services. The growing rate of children online represents an epochal change for issues related to their personal safety and protection, as well as for their privacy rights and chances of improved life. In order to better understand long terms privacy implications of these phenomena the discussion reviews sociological studies that investigated the structure of friendships networks among adolescents, and describes theoretical frames adopted in analysing social practices concerning the private sphere. Results of these studies provide clues on how interpersonal online relations are structured and how attitudes and practices circulate across and inside different social settings. Finally, implications for privacy issues related to the upcoming Internet of Things (IOT) are debated using the case of ethical design in engineering as an alternative option to the control option exercised by governments and companies