A new report published last week by the UK Children’s Commissioner, titled ‘Growing Up Digital’ (PDF), noted that while more than half of all children in the country aged 12-15 had an Instagram account, none of them interviewed by the Commissioner could understand the service’s terms and conditions document. That’s unsurprising, since it spans 5,000 words in language that requires a postgraduate degree to fully comprehend.
The results are worrying for so many reasons, especially when you think about how the next generation will grow up surrounded by all kinds of online communities, apps and services that require them to share private information.
