Christina Johnston
Research Mentor: Lauren Girouard
Mentor Department: Psychology, LSA
Author(s): Christina Johnston, Lauren Girouard
Session: Session 3 (11:00 AM – 11:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 52
Abstract
As digital technologies become a common part of children’s lives, understanding how young users perceive privacy and information sharing is essential. Prior research suggests that children are rarely educated about what online information and data are gathered, and with whom it is shared (Gelman et al., 2024). This study explores how children aged 6-13 decide whether it is acceptable to view personal information about others online or not. In this study, children participated in an experimental study involving an imaginary social media app called Zingo. Using a slideshow, participants were asked whether they believed it was acceptable to view personal information about individuals they knew compared to individuals they did not know. Data was collected through both in-person and Zoom-based sessions. We will examine whether children think it is acceptable to view personal information about famous people, versus people who are not famous. We hypothesize that children will be more likely to think it’s acceptable to view information when the individual is unknown, such as a celebrity or an influencer, compared to when the individual is someone they know. We anticipate that these findings may provide insight into what information children believe is acceptable for strangers to access online.
