'They're not risky' vs 'It can ruin your whole life': How youth/parent dyads differ in their understandings of online risk

Published

July 23, 2023

Author(s)

Olivia Williams, Kerrianne Buchanan, Yee-Yin Choong

Abstract

Encountering and/or engaging in risky online behavior is an inherent aspect of being an online user. In particular, youth are vulnerable to such risky be-havior, making it important to know how they understand and think about this risk-taking behavior. Similarly, with parents being some of the first and most prominent influencers on youth's online knowledge and behavior, it is important to know about parents' understanding and how they attempt to protect/influence their children's knowledge and behavior. In this qualita-tive study, we conducted surveys and semi-structured interviews with 40 youth/parent dyads with youth in 3rd-12th grades in the United States to understand more about how youth think about and engage in online risk and risk-taking behavior, and how their parents view and attempt to influ-ence this knowledge. We found that youth of all ages have nuanced ideas about online risk—including viewing online risk as a source of resilience development, growth and learning—and that these ideas are often in con-trast to how their parents view the same concept. Youth are more likely than their parents to view online risk as context-dependent and agentive, but are less likely than their parents to think about or understand the con-sequences of online risky behavior. We use these findings to discuss impli-cations for parents, youth, education and tool providers, and future re-search.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of 2023 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

Conference Dates

July 23-28, 2023

Conference Location

Copenhagen, DK

Conference Title

25th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35927-9_36

Local Download

Keywords

Youth, Parents, Online Risk, Risky Online Behavior, Dyads

Citation

Williams, O. , Buchanan, K. and Choong, Y. (2023), 'They're not risky' vs 'It can ruin your whole life': How youth/parent dyads differ in their understandings of online risk, Proceedings of 2023 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Copenhagen, DK, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35927-9_36, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=935732 (Accessed April 28, 2024)