Beyond privacy: a framework for personal data literacy in early childhood

Young children are growing up in environments where increasing amounts of information about their bodies, routines, movements, preferences and interactions are captured, represented and shared. This paper argues that personal data literacy can, and should, begin early. Rather than positioning young children primarily through their limitations in understanding online privacy, the paper proposes that personal data literacy should begin with children’s everyday experiences of information about themselves and the value this information can hold. Drawing on sociocultural understandings of early learning and existing work on personal data literacies [Pangrazio, Luci, and Neil Selwyn. 2019. “‘Personal Data Literacies’: A Critical Literacies Approach to Enhancing Understandings of Personal Digital Data.” New Media & Society 21 (2): 419–437. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818799523], the paper presents a framework comprising four interrelated areas: Data Identification, Data Flow, Representing Data, and Interpreting Represented Data. The paper contributes a theoretical foundation for pedagogy, policy and design that supports young children to participate, enjoy, learn and develop agency in relation to their personal data.