French privacy agency publishes manga to teach teenagers about identity theft

The French privacy protection agency is taking a creative approach when it comes to educating minors on identity theft. The National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has published a manga featuring two young investigators trying to solve a mysterious case involving the names of three high school students.

The manga, titled The Shadow Network, was created to raise awareness among teenagers about the issues and risks related to using digital platforms, including hacking and identity theft, cyberbullying, e-reputation, and cybersecurity.

In the story, two detectives working for the  Privacy Agency, Inaya and Isidore, learn about personal data and how social network profiles can be hacked overnight to post inappropriate content.

The comic book was created by Faouzi Boughida, the video game scriptwriter behind Asterix & Obelix XXL3, and illustrated by Grelin. It is available free online and will be distributed to middle schools across the country, as well as certain public libraries.

The Privacy Agency manga comes in three volumes and is part of CNIL’s public awareness campaign under the “Protecting minors and their data in the digital universe” part of its 2025-2028 strategic plan.

Aside from protecting minors, digital identity, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity are the main areas of focus in the strategic program, published in January this year. The plan predicts increasing the number of penalties for data protection law violators.

The regulator is collaborating on other projects related to minors, including France’s restrictions on pornography sites. In January, the nation began enforcing Europe’s first age assurance law, with regulator Arcom requiring all pornography streaming sites operating in France to implement age assurance measures.

Article Topics

CNIL  |  cybersecurity  |  data privacy  |  data protection  |  digital identity  |  France  |  identity theft