‘I make up a silly name’: Understanding Children’s Perception of Privacy Risks Online

TY - CHAP

T1 - ‘I make up a silly name’: Understanding Children’s Perception of Privacy Risks Online

AU - Zhao, Jun

AU - Wang, Ge

AU - Dally, Carys

AU - Slovak, Petr

AU - Childs, Julian

AU - Van Kleek, Max

AU - Shadbolt, Nigel

PY - 2019/5

Y1 - 2019/5

N2 - Children under 11 are often regarded as too young to compre- hend the implications of online privacy. Perhaps as a result, little research has focused on younger kids’ risk recogni- tion and coping. Such knowledge is, however, critical for designing efficient safeguarding mechanisms for this age group. Through 12 focus group studies with 29 children aged 6-10 from UK schools, we examined how children described privacy risks related to their use of tablet computers and what information was used by them to identify threats. We found that children could identify and articulate certain pri- vacy risks well, such as information oversharing or revealing real identities online; however, they had less awareness with respect to other risks, such as online tracking or game promo- tions. Our findings offer promising directions for supporting children’s awareness of cyber risks and the ability to protect themselves online.

AB - Children under 11 are often regarded as too young to compre- hend the implications of online privacy. Perhaps as a result, little research has focused on younger kids’ risk recogni- tion and coping. Such knowledge is, however, critical for designing efficient safeguarding mechanisms for this age group. Through 12 focus group studies with 29 children aged 6-10 from UK schools, we examined how children described privacy risks related to their use of tablet computers and what information was used by them to identify threats. We found that children could identify and articulate certain pri- vacy risks well, such as information oversharing or revealing real identities online; however, they had less awareness with respect to other risks, such as online tracking or game promo- tions. Our findings offer promising directions for supporting children’s awareness of cyber risks and the ability to protect themselves online.

KW - Children

KW - Family technologies

KW - Privacy

KW - Scaffolding

KW - Tablet computers

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067631904&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3290605.3300336

DO - 10.1145/3290605.3300336

M3 - Conference paper

BT - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - ACM New York, NY, USA

ER -