I was 12 years old when I first got Facebook, personally I think this was way too young to start my digital footprint. A digital footprint “refers to the trail of data you leave when using the internet. It includes websites you visit, emails you send, and information you submit online. A digital footprint can be used to track a person’s online activities and devices. Internet users create their digital footprint either actively or passively” (Kaspersky resources). Even though my parents warned me that everything that goes onto the internet stays on the internet I was not mature enough to truly understand what was aloud to be posted and what was not aloud. My parents also were not active on looking at what I was posting onto the internet, mostly because they never understood it at the time and didn’t realize the dangers either. I still use the same Facebook as I did when I was 12 and now I deal with painful memories of the things I used to post such as:
These really weird copy, paste and answer types of posts. (age 14)
Posting about when I started school. (age 12)
Looking back on my old Facebook posts gave me an eerie feeling because I used to share so much about what I was doing, who I was with, my friends/family and pictures of all this too. Now after learning about safety on the internet I keep everything private, I don’t have friends on my Facebook I do not know. Having students understanding digital footprints are important because they need to be aware of digital footprints and taking the proper steps to manage it, such as adjusting their privacy settings and being mindful of the information we share online.