Colby Vanderaa
Research Mentor: Lauren Girouard
Mentor Department: Psychology, LSA
Author(s): Colby Vanderaa, Lauren Girouard
Session: Session 6 (3:00 PM – 3:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 92
Abstract
As social media use has become more common among children, there has been significant research investigating the impacts of social media on emotional development and well-being. This study, however, investigates children’s perceptions of digital privacy on social media, such as who can share, view, and own information, as well as how long that information remains accessible. We show children ages 6 to 13 a presentation, asking them to envision a profile on an imaginary social media platform. Throughout the presentation, participants answer survey questions assessing their beliefs about appropriate posting and viewing practices for different types of information, including their own, that of people they know personally, and that of public figures or celebrities. This presentation’s focus is on how age impacts children’s beliefs about parents and friends viewing and posing their information online. Across age groups, children tended to show higher approval rates of their parents viewing and posting their information than friends doing the same. Additionally, children seem not to distinguish between posting and viewing. With the aim of identifying patterns in how children conceptualize digital privacy and agency online, the findings will likely highlight developmental differences in privacy understanding and reveal possible gaps in current media literacy education. These results are expected to have implications for designing developmentally appropriate digital privacy instruction.
