The paper examines the existing approaches to privacy in modern psychology. Basic directions of studying privacy and protection of personal data in the online environment through various scientific approaches are analyzed. Protection of personal data being one of privacy kinds is deemed as a relevant issue of safety of today’s children and adolescents, i.e. Internet users. Based on population studies data and content analysis of social networking the ratio of Russian children and adolescents to personal data is analyzed, the problems arising from its misuse, and also parents’ attitudes to this issue and the possibility of their assistance to their children in the protection of personal data are emphasized. 

The research shows that at least one-third of Russian adolescents make a group of risk and may be affected by the risks posed by careless handling of personal information, because these children do not always respect the principle of confidentiality in respect of passwords; they establish open access to a personal page, allowing access to any registered user; personal profile specifies a set of personal information about themselves to the maximum extent; they are willing to share personal information with strangers; to no one to seek help on issues related to privacy settings in the Network. 

The results show that not only the children but also their parents greatly underestimate the hidden dangers of careless use and storage of personal data on the Internet. 

Russian schoolchildren have developed a commonly shared digital generation outlook but they still preserve different look at privacy in general and personal data in particular. Education of children and adolescents safety is emphasized to be a priority for parents and schools within the framework of promoting a culture of Internet use.

The paper discusses the effect of Information Technologies entering into the everyday life of a human, which is associated with the erosion of the identity boundaries. In respect of such technologies phenomenon, which is important for the structure and dynamics of identity, is revealed: the interpenetration of the two control systems. On the one hand, technology provides people with new means of control over the world, but at the same time we becomes controlled by the same technological expansion. Getting equipped with certain vital facilities, technologically advanced people become deprived of their privacy, so technology turns out to be the means of total control. Benefits that provide technological expansion have the reverse side. Extended opportunities to access information results in increasing the availability of an Internet user, a smart phone owner or a bank cardholder. Any private information in the network can be accessed by a third party without the user’s consent.

Personal deprivatization results in increased levels of anxiety, emergence of feelings of being controlled and feelings of insecurity. The agenda includes the issue of ethical and psychological repercussions of electronic monitoring, digitizing, and chipping via wearable implants. The paper discusses the risk of changing human living through invisible, widespread and standard technologies of control. It is shown in the paper that personal space violation is not always a result of the activities of the state, but is rather the result of misunderstanding the specifics of Information Technologies, as well as ways of using than by a human.

Realizing that technology is a not neutral issue with respect to the user is the basis for complying with ordinary ‘information hygiene’ and preventing violations of the identity boundaries.