“Don’t be dumb—that’s the rule I try to live by”: A closer look at older teens’ online privacy and safety attitudes

TLDR

Media portray teens as reckless online users, yet these accounts are largely based on adult prescriptive views rather than teens’ own perspectives. The study used qualitative background questionnaires and focus groups to capture older teens’ attitudes toward online privacy and safety. Older teens reported privacy concerns and discomfort with unintended audiences, yet felt tension when sharing with friends; they were less worried about safety, felt protected, and viewed other generations as less knowledgeable, underscoring the need for tailored privacy and safety education.

Abstract

Popular media often characterize youths’ use of social media as overwhelmingly negative, reporting that teens engage in reckless, unsafe behaviors with little thought to their online privacy or safety. Typically, these popular media accounts are based on adults’ prescriptive views of youths’ attitudes and behaviors. Using qualitative methods including background questionnaires and focus groups, we gathered older teens’ attitudes about online privacy and safety to provide a more complete narrative from a teen perspective. Findings suggest that older teens are concerned with their online privacy and feel discomfort with unintended audiences seeing their personal information, yet most feel tension to share personal information with friends. They are less concerned about safety, tending to feel safe online and to employ protective measures, but viewing older and younger generations as less knowledgeable about online safety. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for teaching teens about online privacy and safety.