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There is a lot of interesting analysis and recommendation in the “Growing up digital” report from the UK’s Children’s Commissioner referenced in this article - and the simplified terms and conditions (that nobody ever reads) are only the most obvious of its gems - , but the truly interesting aspect is that it is not only children that lack the digital literacy required to understand what using “free services” on the web implies:
according to the report, only people with postgraduate levels of education could properly understand Instagram’s terms and conditions.
Similarly, the Commission’s policy recommendations could easily be extended to literacy work for the general (adult) public.
In particular, the second recommendation (write terms and conditions that children understand) would be of great benefit: just as accessibility features in a website improve usability for everybody regardless of their abilities, making terms and conditions simple to understand would improve their understandability for everybody regardless of age.
Seriously: how many of grown up Instagram users are aware of the few examples bolded by the Quartz editors here? These are (a small excerpt from) the rules under which millions of people upload their private pictures to the internet every day.
via The Engine Room
