A panel of teenagers speaking at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference gave advice on educating youngsters about Information Security. Elizabeth, a sixteen-year-old at Seattle Preparatory School emphasised safety, "I don't know that a school should be giving courses in computer ethics, but they should talk about computer security. If you are going to have a computer in the classroom, talk to kids about - hey, you might see an adult site, that there are internet predators out there, they exist, you kids need to be careful - you know, give them the basic education."
Steven, a 16-year-old junior at Sammanish High School wanted a similar treatment to sex education, "We need to have the same sort of discussion in terms of privacy. The majority of teenagers know about the sexual diseases out there because of this conversation that they have with their parents or because of they have the talk in the school in sex ed. I think (security) needs to be addressed the same as well."
Elizabeth also commented that kids are ahead of parents and educators in Information Security terms, "It feels like we are done and on to the next thing by the time other people are aware of it." All the panellists agree that parents and schools should be talking about the internet with their kids far sooner than they do today - by the age of 10 at the latest.