Dr. Valerie Steeves

Valerie Steeves, J.D., Ph.D, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. She has spoken and written extensively on young people’s use of networked technologies, and is an expert in privacy law. She is the lead researcher for Media Smart’s Young Canadians in a Wired World research project (measuring the effect of new media on young people’s privacy and social relationships), the co-principal investigator (with Jane Bailey) of The eGirls Project (examining the performance of gender on social networking sites), and a researcher with the New Transparency Project. Dr. Steeves has appeared as an expert witness before a number of Parliamentary Committees regarding privacy legislation and communications policy, and has created a series of award-winning educational games to help young people learn how to deal with online issues.