If someone were to ask me what it is like to be a student in today’s society, I would probably answer: Being a student in today s society is not always easy.

Adults often tell us that we don’t know what stress is. But we have our own levels of stress. Many students in their high school years start their part-time job, so now you have school in the mornings, followed by responsibilities needing to be taken care of at home and then you’re off to work. By the time you are done there, you are too tired to finish your school work, but you stay up late to try and return to school feeling sleepy the next day. What good is that?

My point is, it is a whole lot more stressful to be a student in high school than adults believe. Our “stress” may not include paying bills or taking care of a family, but I’m sure if the adults in our lives could go back to school today, they would be surprised at how much it has changed.

I don’t want you to think for a minute that there aren’t good moments and memories while we are students at school. My mom always tells me to enjoy it while I can. I know that the world outside of school is often hard and that the responsibilities are serious. That’s exactly why I know that the focus I give to my future is important in leading me to a career that will allow me to contribute to society.

Nowadays, more stores and restaurants are not accepting cash as payment. Instead, customers must pay with a credit card, or by smartphone app.

Many business owners say that being cashless has helped them streamline the way their business runs. Staff members don't have to worry about having enough money in the cash register to make change or about taking bills and coins to the bank.

However, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, more than 8 million households in the United States don't have bank accounts. Also, many people, including kids, don't meet the requirements for a credit card.

“A cashless economy is not an inclusive economy. There are consumers who can't get a credit card, because of low income. When stores refuse to accept cash, they exclude low-income or homeless people,” says Tazra Mitchell, a policy director at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.

Plus, people who do have credit cards might prefer to pay in cash. “Cash is used by almost eight in 10 people in the US every month. That's more than any other payment type,” says Nick Bourke, a director at the Pew Charitable Trusts' consumer finance project.

Lawmakers in several places have taken steps to ban cashless stores. A handful of major cities — including New. York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — have already passed laws to address the problem. In San Francisco, California, a law banning cashless stores was passed last May. It says most stores in the city must allow customers to pay with cash. Derek Remski helped write the San Francisco law. Remski says, "It's about understanding that not everyone has equal access to things.^”

A new survey reviews that more than 60% of websites and apps intended for Canadian children may be collecting personal information and passing it on to a third party. The survey was completed by the Global Privacy Enforcement Network, which reviewed 1,494 websites and apps.

Focusing on trends among Canadian users, the sweep team reviewed 118 websites and apps targeted directly at children, as well as 54 that are known to be popular with and used by kids. The team’s findings showed that more than 50% of Canadian sites collect personal information from children, including names, addresses, phone numbers and photos, audio or video. In addition, 62% of sites admitted they may show that personal information to third parties. Another 62% allowed the user to be redirected to a different site, and only 28% of the sites and apps involved any form of parental control or protection.

A member of the team Tobi Cohen, outlined a few of the sites that did and did not live up to the standards of children’s privacy online. She praised both Family.ca and Lego.com for their message boards that did not allow users to post personal information, and noted that santasvillage. ca asked users to provide their full name and email address. Gamezhero.com was also singled out for allowing users to display personal information, including names, age, sex and locations. Pbskids.org, on the other hand, was praised for only offering generic, pre-set avatars (头像) and barring users form uploading personal photos.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada refused to release a full list of the websites and apps reviewed. When asked what would be done with results, commissioner Daniel Therrien said that companies reviewed in the sweep would be kept informed of the findings. “It’s our usual practice after conducting a sweep to write a number of companies to point out the things that we’ve seen, to sometimes ask that things be changed, and on the whole the companies react positively to these requests.” Therrien added.

In an attempt to help kids better understand why their privacy matters, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has created a lesson plan for kids in Grade 7 and 8 that explains the Global Privacy Enforcements Network and has kids conduct privacy reviews of their own.

“We know that companies are not the only ones responsible for the protection of kids’ privacy.” Therrien said. “Parents and teachers obviously have a role. We have a role, particularly in the area of increasing awareness of privacy issues among the public.”

Matthew Johnson, director of education at Media Smarts, said that the sweep’s results were sadly unsurprising. Media Smarts, an Ottawa-based non-profit digital literacy outfit intended to improve media literacy and empowering the youth to better engage with media, offers age-appropriate tips to parents concerned with keeping their kids safe online.

Johnson explained that in addition to educating themselves on the issue, the best thing parents could do to protect children’s privacy online is to educate kids on the importance of the function of their personal data. He mentioned an initiative by Media Smarts called Privacy Pirates, an online game that aims to teach kids at the age of seven to nine that all forms of personal information should be protected and added that their personal information has value and they should think twice before giving it out.