Media Release: Melbourne girl wins international youth privacy competition

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27 August 2007

The Privacy Commissioners of Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the Northern Territory, New South Wales and Victoria today announced that Erica Hei-Yuan Chan, a 16-year old student at the Carey Baptist Grammar School in Kew, Victoria, is the winner of an international competition for secondary school students promoting awareness of privacy issues.

"Ms Hei-Yuan Chan's entry offered a highly original and imaginative perspective on the privacy issues facing all of us in Australian society and beyond," said Karen Curtis, the Australian Privacy Commissioner on behalf of the Commissioners. 

The competition was hosted by the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) as part of its Privacy Awareness Week (26 August - 1 September 2007) initiatives. Hundreds of entries were received from secondary school students across Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Entrants were able to submit a written piece in any format addressing the theme, "Privacy is your business". Entries included poetry, prose, Internet blog entries, diary entries, radio interview scripts, academic essays and word art.

Entries were judged by the APPA Privacy Commissioners. 

"The judging panel was impressed with the quality of the entries it received. The entrants' depth of consideration of privacy issues and concerns demonstrates the interest in and importance of privacy in the lives of the youth of today," said Ms Curtis.

Ms Hei-Yuan Chan's essay described privacy within an "Age of Never Before" where people are able to communicate so freely and rapidly.

Ms Hei-Yuan Chan will be presented with a laptop computer and will fly to Sydney with a guardian on Wednesday to meet with the Australian Attorney-General, the Hon Philip Ruddock MP, the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Ms Karen Curtis, the NSW Privacy Commissioner, Mr John Dickie, and David Taylor, Director Privacy Awareness from Privacy Victoria.

Other winning entrants included:

• Yeung Kuen from Hong Kong (second place).
• Briony Bennett from New Zealand (third place).

For more information on Privacy Awareness Week and the competition, go to www.privacyawarenessweek.org