Unit 1 · Topic 02 · Digital Safety and Citizenship
Anaya's Diwali poster took three whole lab periods. Rangoli, diyas, a glowing border.
On Monday morning she opened it, and somebody had drawn a moustache on every single diya.
"Who did it?" said Anaya.
"Anyone could have," said Kabir, reading the top of the screen. "It says Anyone with the link can edit."
On Friday, Anaya had clicked Share, picked the fastest option, copied the link and pasted it into her cousin's big family group. Forty-one people. Her cousin forwarded it to a friend. The friend forwarded it on.
Nobody was being cruel. Somebody, somewhere, thought moustaches were funny.
Ms. Rao did not look worried. "Open the Share box again," she said. "Read it slowly this time."
Anaya clicked Share. Under General access it said Anyone with the link, and beside it a small word: Editor.
"Editor means change my poster," said Anaya slowly.
"Now change two things," said Ms. Rao. "The who, and the what they can do."
Anaya switched General access to Restricted. Then she typed three names: Kabir, Ms. Rao, her mother. She set them to Viewer, not Editor.
Then Kabir found Version history under the File menu. They opened Friday's version and got the moustache-free poster back in about nine seconds.
Pixel's fan spun up, sounding almost smug.
"So the setting was doing exactly what I told it," said Anaya.
"Settings always do," said Ms. Rao. "The trouble is they keep doing it after you have forgotten."
Anaya submitted the poster on Tuesday. It won second prize. The diyas had no moustaches.
A privacy setting is a switch that decides who can see your stuff and what they may do with it. Every app that lets you share has some version of it.
In Google Docs, Slides and Sheets the Share box has two separate parts. General access answers "who?" — Restricted means only the people you name; Anyone with the link means anyone who ever receives that link. The role answers "what may they do?" — Viewer, Commenter or Editor.
Settings are silent. They never remind you. So the safe habit is simple: choose the smallest audience that still does the job, and the smallest power they need.
Open any document you own in Google Docs or Slides and click Share. Do not change anything yet — just read the General access line and the role beside it out loud.
Now write on paper: who can see this today, and what can they do? Then decide whether that is the smallest audience you actually need.
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