Privacy in adolescence

Abstract

Late adolescence represents an important life stage where children are becoming more independent and autonomous from their parents but are not quite old enough to go out on their own. Teenagers are also avid users of mobile devices and social media and actively use their smartphones to connect with friends and share their lives. Much of the research looking at teen technology use has employed a risk-centric approach; in other words, it takes the view that teens are putting themselves at risk by sharing personal information online, so the privacy-oriented solutions typically involve parental monitoring or technology restrictions. In this chapter, we review the research on teens, technology use, and privacy and discuss why such risk-centric models may be problematic to teens' maturation. Instead, we argue that-much like it was for prior generations-risk-taking is a learning process critical to becoming a young adult and that teens do think about their privacy online, albeit in different ways than their adult counterparts. We offer design heuristics for developing tools for teens that allow for appropriate levels of risk-taking while protecting their privacy and ensuring their safety.