Abstract:

The topic of internet security has become a relatively standard stepping-stone from which academics and experts proceed to build the ethic basis of using the internet for private and corporate use. However, this topic remains largely indifferent to the social revolution that generation Z presents - a generation of young people, whose private lives are (at least) as dependent on their virtual experiences as they are on their real-life experiences. In a 2017 eSafety survey, 34% of 17-year-olds and 18% of 14-year-olds answered, that they had sent an image (private and/or sexual in nature) via their social media after being asked to do so. [eSaftey.gov.au , 2019, accessed 2020]. The parents' role in teaching ethics and personal security has been a target of dozens of studies in the last decades, but deciding whose role is it to actually teach the principles of private/personal safety on the internet is still in the process.

We focus on two key factors:
1) Parents' awareness and literacy, in regard to the internet.
2) Formal education's role in approaching the fast-changing area of media communication, that young people are being shaped by today.

Keywords:

Personal security, parents' awareness, formal education.