Social Privacy. Informare, comunicare, educare ai tempi del web 3.0

Youth and internet: a theme of consideration and debate difficult to avoid in a globalize and worldwide society. In its latest report, the Censis has defined the era in which we live as the “bio-media era”, or the “exhibition of the own digital self” era. An era in which the sharing has completely outclassed the confidentiality. The influence of technology affects behaviors, habits and moods of all generations. However, it has much more important effects on so-called digital natives, young people born and immersed in new technologies who live in symbiosis with their mobile devices, digital ecosystems, video games, internet and new media. In fact, the massive use of new media determines an important effect that must be taken into account in social relations: the emotional illiteracy. New autobiography and narcissism are then expression of that need for recognition, which found in the Web 3.0 a means to express themselves and that the power (political and commercial) promotes and uses to its own purposes: namely, to direct and control behaviors. The acquirable data are very varied: health, education, incomes, spending power and different preferences as regard of what to buy, sex, religion, culture, politics, etc. In Italy, a response to the above-mentioned dangers was given through the creation of an administrative entity called “Authority For theProtection of Personal Data” (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali). This is an independent administrative authority established by Law No. 75 of December 31, 1996 (so-called Law on Privacy), to ensure the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms and the respect for the dignity in the treatment of personal data. However, beyond and before the normative dimension of such a complex phenomenon, a Media Education activity appears necessary. This means an educational and didactic activity aimed at developing in young people an information and critical understanding of the nature and of categories of new media, and of those techniques they use to build messages and to produce meaning.