I am emerging into being a teen and being a teen means social media, but how will I know that what I do online is protected? I don’t, and not knowing where all of my data goes is a disturbing fact.

In a recent CBS News story, “Americans Are Skeptical Facebook Can Protect User Data,” Americans were not surprised that their personal data is accessible to companies, but they were surprised that Facebook is not trying hard enough to secure their data.

I remember trying to log in to my Facebook account after a long time. I remember seeing that my password was changed even though I knew I didn’t change it. Seeing that I just got hacked left me stunned and confused. Even though I later found out I was hacked after I got my account back, I was still very scared.

According to The Verge’s article, “Former Facebook Executive Says Social Media is Ripping Apart Society,” only twenty-two percent of people think that companies are doing enough to protect their data. This was very surprising to me, especially since this generation that I am growing up in is, in my opinion, the generation that is most reliant on technology. As an emerging teen I want to know that what I share is all that is being shared.

Finally, I think that by using social media to connect with family doesn’t have to be pressuring of how and what of your data is being shared.

In conclusion, I think that as a growing teen I and other teenagers rely a lot more on the internet, but how can we be sure how much security we have? In the future, I would want to see social media companies show us more clearly what is being shared to others. I would also want to see that the security that I have increases, since many of us will rely on the internet to express ourselves or connect with others. But how will we feel safe or confident on what others can view?

Huy An N.

De Marillac Academy

826 Valencia and IRL

For Season 4 of IRL, we are proud to partner with 826 Valencia, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced students with their writing skills. Students from San Francisco’s De Marillac Academy are contributing their thoughts on each episode to demonstrate how the web impacts them. You can learn more about 826 Valencia here.

How to Listen to IRL

*What is the IRL Podcast?* Our online life is real life. We walk, talk, work, LOL and even love on the Internet – but we don’t always treat it like real life. Host Manoush Zomorodi explores this disconnect with stories from the wilds of the Web, and gets to the bottom of online issues that affect us all. Whether it’s privacy breaches, closed platforms, hacking, fake news, or cyber bullying, we the people have the power to change the course of the Internet, keeping it ethical, safe, weird, and wonderful for everyone. IRL is an original podcast from Mozilla.

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