diff --git a/content/blog/2025/01/2025-01-31_fosdem-junior-petition/index.en.md b/content/blog/2025/01/2025-01-31_fosdem-junior-petition/index.en.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f604c561ded1f6bdc7e099315718abdb784d2cb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/2025/01/2025-01-31_fosdem-junior-petition/index.en.md @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ ++++ +title = "Join our call to make FOSDEM Junior free" +authors = ["nik"] + +[taxonomies] +tags = ["Ankündigung"] +zielgruppe = ["Hacker und Maker", "Eltern"] +aspekt = ["Digitale Mündigkeit"] + +[extra.depiction] +image = "postcard.png" +alt = "Postcard showing the theses explained in the post" +credits = "Dominik George, CC-BY-SA" ++++ + +Europe's biggest Free Software development conference, +[FOSDEM](https://fosdem.org/), will be held in Bruxelles. +Join our call to help make its junior programme free, +open, and self-determined for everyone! + +<!-- more --> + +## FOSDEM Junior + +The [FOSDEM Junior](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/track/junior/) track is +FOSDEM's programme for children between 7 and 17 years. Established in 2024, +it offers a variety of workshops, mostly held by adult tutors for the young +people who attend. + +Organised as part of the ["Code Club"](https://codeclub.org/) series, it is +officially an offer by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The FOSDEM Junior track +thus shares the Code of Conduct, as well as some technical platforms, with +the foundation. + +## Privacy concerns over Code Club platforms + +One major issue we see with how FOSDEM Junior is organised is that the platforms +offered by the Raspberry Pi Foundation are governed by privacy policies that +directly contradict many of the values we pursue when working with young people +(and even with people in general). Opening the Code Club website that hosts +the Code of Conduct alone requires consent to **72 "necessary" tracking cookies** of +several providers, among which are Microsoft, Google, Solarwinds, Stripe, and +Cloudflare. + +In their privacy policy, Raspberry Pi Foundation reserves the right to collect +an enormous amount of personal information, including such things as physical +addresses, birthdays, gender information, and even "CCTV images". +The latter might arguably only aaply to physical visits to their offices, but the +provacy policy, as it stands, states that every website visitor might be affected +by such data processing. + +For "operational reasons", all data may be shared with Google Workspace, Amazon Web +Services machines, and Salesforce. The Raspberry Pi Foundation claims that all these systems +are operated within the UK, which left the European Union, thus posing even mroe dfficulties +on GDPR-compliant data processing when children from within the EU are affected. + +## Closed platforms and GAFAM dependencies in workshops + +While most of the workshops offered in FOSDEM Junior are based on free and open source +toosl and platforms, some stand out for requiring the use of closed platforms. For example, +the MIT App Inventor workshop requires to have a Google account, and, while the workshop +description claims that an "Android phone or tablet" is required, it turns out that using +and Android-based phone will probably not suffice, as MIT App Inventor relies on +Google Play Services. + +## Limited self-determination in FOSDEM Junior + +As a result of the above issues, FOSDEM Junior requires all participants to be accompanied +by a parent or other adult guardian. With the privacy-unfriendly policies of the Raspberry +Pi Foundation in place, children and adolescents essentially cannot decide to agree or +disagree. + +While getting parental consent is not an issue in itself, the requirement to agree to (or have +a guardian consent to) the extensive data collection, locks out children who are not willing +to consent. What we regularly see at Teckids events is that many parents tend to put a high +importance on fostering their children's coding activities, hence being very likely to agree +to policies that the children themselves, after proper information and discussion, would +probably not agree to. Children themselves, on the other hand, tend to agree to policies they +would not normally agree to if put under the social pressure to do so. + +Therefore, we believe that programmes for children should carefully design their data processing, +allowing children to fully understand policies and consequences, and making agreeing as +easy as possible without compromising their self-determination. + +Requiring a Google phone or access to other commercial platforms normalises the use of comemrcial +software. Children who would normally resist social pressure of their peer groups to join +commercial platforms, like WhatsApp or other corporate social media, are more likely to give +up such resistance in the future after experiencing that persons of authority have normalised +their use. + +Commercial platforms, like Google Play, are prone to much stricter access restrictions due to +their commercial chracter and their data processing principles. Hence, young people are +often required to either depend on a parent to use such platforms, or use them illegally. + +At Teckids, we believe that programmes targeted at children and organised by free software +activists should make normalisation of free, open, accessible platforms a priority. + +## Join our call to FOSDEM Junior + +At FOSDEM 2025, we present our "Charta of Comprehesibility" programme for the first time +by reaching out to FOSDEM Junior and the FOSDEM team. Our goal is to convince FOSDEM +Junior to revise their policies, making the freedom and self-determination of all +participants a priority. In essence, we will be calling for the following principles: + +* Technology and tools should be free, open, and transparent. +* Platforms should be privacy-friendly and accessible without age restrictions. +* Participation should be free and self-determined for all groups and ages. +* Children should have the last say concerning their data and privacy. +* Commercial offerings and advertising should be avoided where at all possible. + +Just as we did in 2018 and 2019, we once again offer our experience and expertise +in working with young people in the free software world to support FOSDEM Junior, +allowing for a workshop programme that respects the children's free and self-determined +participation to the maximum extent. + + + +**If you want to join our call, visit us at our stand in building F.** diff --git a/content/blog/2025/01/2025-01-31_fosdem-junior-petition/postcard.png b/content/blog/2025/01/2025-01-31_fosdem-junior-petition/postcard.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..21c5d15afdc352b61bb61f2bcbe1f53cad2e8f1d Binary files /dev/null and b/content/blog/2025/01/2025-01-31_fosdem-junior-petition/postcard.png differ