It is currently becoming clear that the social meta-process of digitization transforms the areas of culture and especially of education. For many young people, digitization, and algorithms represent an abstract and non-transparent black box whose properties as well as their personal and individual consequences can hardly be estimated (DIVSI 2014 & 2018). At the same time, their everyday life is strongly influenced by digitization and algorithms. Young people use the Internet and smartphones mainly in commercial online environments whose business models are based on online advertising, data collection, and data sale. The EU General Data Protection Regulation creates a legal framework for children and young people that can only partially enable a protected online space of use for young users (Livingstone 2107). In addition to large platform companies that are behind the most popular services for young people (which store, process, and evaluate data in non-EU countries), one of the major challenges is the high social relevance of these services and a general ambivalence of knowledge and action of young people.
From an educational perspective, there are high demands on the skills of young people in dealing with online advertising, personalization, and data protection (Livingstone & Helsper 2006); on the other hand, the current competencies of young people in this area have so far been marked by inequality (Hargittai 2010, Zillien 2006, Livingstone et al. 2017). Research shows that in the frist place one of the major challenges from a media education perspective is to make transparent that young users are affected by this structures. And to make this problematizable to enable a reflective discussion (Schulze 2013, Dreyer et al. 2014, Iske & Wilde 2017).
The current project „Im Netz – Alles umsonst?“ (In the Web – All for Free?) aims to work and reflect on the abstract and non-transparent black box of digitization and algorithmization with young people (13-17 years) in an action-oriented and lifeworld way. Furthermore, it promotes the target groups digital skills and online advertising skills.

Using the example of online advertising, and especially the personalization of advertising and web offers, the challenges and potential of digitization and algorithmization are discussed in relation to everyday life with young people against the background of data protection: Online services and everyday online phenomena such as YouTube, Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat and gaming apps form the starting point for this discussion. For this purpose, workshops are developed within the project in different formats, which in particular rely on innovative interactive materials. As part of the project, these workshop formats will be tested and evaluated in schools and extracurricular youth leisure facilities. The parallel implementation of a web-based working environment should also enable comparative and networked working methods that go beyond individualized use. This is particularly necessary for the theming of personalized content and forms of advertising. It makes it possible, for example, to recognize that advertising spaces on websites are filled with different and often personalized/individualized advertising content. Based on this comparison it becomes clear how the personalized content differs from one another.

Once the project is finished all materials should be available as Open Educational Ressources. On the one hand for interested workshop leaders and teachers, but also independent work for young people on the platform. First results of these workshops, the corresponding materials, and the evaluation as well as first implementations of the platform will be presented and discussed. Among other things, the question of how the content could be further developed and also be made internationally accessible will be discussed.

DIVSI (2014): DIVSI U25-Studie: Kinder, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene in der digitalen Welt. Hamburg: Deutsches Institut für Vertrauen und Sicherheit im Internet. Online unter: https://www.divsi.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/DIVSI-U25-Studie.pdf DIVSI (2018): DIVSI U25-Studie Euphorie war gestern. Die „Generation Internet“ zwischen Glück und Abhängigkeit. Hamburg: Deutsches Institut für Vertrauen und Sicherheit im Internet. Online unter: https://www.divsi.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/DIVSI-U25-Studie-euphorie.pdf Dreyer, S., Lampert, C. & Schulze, A. (2014). Kinder und Onlinewerbung. Erscheinungsformen von Werbung im Internet, ihre Wahrnehmung durch Kinder und ihr regulatorischer Kontext. Leipzig: Vistas Hargittai, Eszter (2010) Digital Na(t)Ives? Variation in Internet Skills and Uses among Members of the “Net Generation”*“. Sociological Inquiry 80(1): 92–113 Iske, Stefan, Wilde, Katrin (2018): Online-Werbung aus der Perspektive Jugendlicher. Subjektive Relevanzen, Bewertungen und Überzeugungen, https://doi.org/10.24352/UB.OVGU-2018-668 Linvingstone, S. & Helsper, E. (2006). Does advertising literacy mediate the effects of advertising on children? A critical examination of two linked research literatures in relation to obesity and food choice. In: Journal of Communication, 56 (3), S. 560-584 Livingstone, Sonia (2017) What does the European General Data Protection Regulation mean for children in the UK?: Report on an LSE Media Policy Project roundtable. . London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK Livingstone, Sonia , Ólafsson, Kjartan and Maier, George (2017) A complex web of factors influence children's commercial media literacy. LSE Business Review (22 Jul 2017). Website Schulze, A. (2013). Internetwerbung und Kinder. Eine Rezeptionsanalyse. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Zillien, Nicole: Digitale Ungleichheit. Neue Technologien und alte Un-gleichheiten in der Informations- und Wissensgesellschaft. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006