Little is known about lower secondary school students’ understanding of cookies and their awareness of personalized advertising, and even less is known about how much this knowledge can be improved. This experimental study addresses this gap with Grade 6 (N = 44) and Grade 8 (N = 35) students. We assessed their knowledge through interviews and provided a brief, one-on- one intervention to half the participants. A follow-up interview five months later evaluated the long-term impact. Initial understanding of students was mixed, with some inaccurately believing cookies protect against online threats. Eighth- graders had better knowledge than sixth graders. The experimental group exhibited strong gain in understanding cookies (η2 p = 0.16), but not personalized ads. This study suggests that children often have an experience-based initial understanding of digital concepts, but a simple intervention can enhance it.
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