Have you ever ‘googled’ yourself? With a little persistence it’s amazing what can crop up. Search engine efficiency and a close to infinite storage capacity, means you might be in a situation where anybody can dig up a lot about you, without leaving their own home. This situation isn't temporary either. What has once been put out will exist somewhere for as long as you can imagine.

It's not intrinsically a bad thing that information about you is stored and publicly accessible. It is, however, paramount that you are aware of the situation, so that you can take care to protect the information you don't want everybody else to see - and potentially use and abuse.

Nono, the Norwegian awareness node for internet safety, has focused on the issues surrounding privacy in the electronic world since it began - as well as in its former incarnation, SAFT. How do you address the issue in a situation where the kids want attention, not to hide from it? The first step has been to listen to them. How do they feel about their digital situation?

A number of paradoxes immediately crop up: They want to be seen, but only by their friends; they are told to hide their online identities, but lying is bad. The list goes on. A lot of the kids have a pronounced view on their privacy, most have chosen to go for the 'security by obscurity' route: There is so much information out there, how can anybody but my friends possibly be interested in what there is about me?

Last year’s most printed and quoted news story in Norway came from Nono. Its headline ran, "Didn’t get job because of Google - Employers google before job interviews." That got their attention.