Social Proximity and Data Sensitivity: An Exploratory Study of Children's Privacy Spheres Configurations in Urban and Rural Peru

This paper presents the Privacy Spheres Activity (PSA), a hands-on activity that invites children to map social actors across concentric privacy spheres and decide what information to share, with particular attention to online actors and digital behavioral data. The activity was implemented with 71 children aged 6 to 9 from one urban and one rural school in Peru. Preliminary findings reveal a gradient of both social proximity and information sensitivity: close family members and intimate information were placed in inner spheres, while online actors, strangers, and less sensitive information were positioned in outer spheres. Participants shared little information with internet applications and online businesses, including relatively limited digital behavioral data. The PSA offers initial quantitative insight into children's privacy reasoning in a Global South context, showing potential as both a research instrument and a catalyst for dialogue around data privacy.