Readability assessment of policies and procedures of social networking sites

Abstract

Many internet users today are members of social network sites, building personal profiles and interacting with millions of users worldwide. These virtual environments are based on Web 2.0 technology and offer rich user interaction, personalized use of the environment, and the option for sophisticated user-created content. Some of these environments have developed into large communities with complex relationships within the community, which are covered by policies and procedures. Users accept these when they sign up with the site, and many find that these policies and procedures can be quite complex and difficult to read. A large number of participants in these environments are children or teenagers, making it even more important to ensure that all users fully understand what these policies and procedures entail. Even adult users often have trouble understanding and applying the policies and procedures, and in many cases users just accept the default when registering with the site. This paper addresses the readability of such statements and evaluates the comprehension difficulty of standard policies and procedures of selected social network sites. It concludes with a summary and suggestions for future research. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.