In Slovenia like other EU countries has seen an expansion of social networking sites, the most popular amoung young people being Netlog, Facebook and MySpace. However, user awareness with regards to the protection of personal data protection remains low. The potential consequences of reckless disclosure of personal data, such as publishing private photos and posting videos, are especially problematic when it comes to children and teenagers. This can be confirmed by findings of three youth panels with 32 participants that have been conducted by the members of SAFE-SI Awareness Centre. Namely, teenagers aged 13 and 14 feel safe on social networking sites, they think nothing unpleasant can happen to them in these sites.

Quotes from the participants at the youth panel:

"I share passwords (for e-mail, social networking sites) with my friends. Why not, they are my friend and I trust them!"

"My cousin put me on a social networking site and I did not know I had a profile"

Teenagers aged 13 to 14 never check whether some of their friends put inappropriate pictures of them on-line.

Through youth panels we also found out that children aged 9 to 12 do not perceive cyber bullying as a problem, they think it is just a joke and funny. But when they speak about their experiences it is not as innocent as they would like to make it.

Quotes from the participant at the youth panel:

"I am automatically signed in MSN on my computer at home. So when my sister is on computer she writes insulting and embarrassing things to my friends."

"My brother was harassed via MSN. They threaten to wait for him in front of school and hurt him. He reported it to police and nothing happened."

The most important added value of talking to youth is getting valuable information about their on-line habits and the experiences they have on the internet. Additionally, it is easier to assess the level of risky behaviour of children and what the pitfalls are. Do children choose to ignore the "safer internet rules" or they do not know or do not comprehend the rules? These first hand information and identification of children’s needs give grounds for developing youth targeting campaigns, writing articles about children on-line and also informing parents that are often "clue-less" about the young generations activities on-line.

Authors: Ajda Jerman Kuželički and Tanja Šterk, Slovenian Awareness Centre