Abstract
Given the increasingly young age that children are using technology and accessing the internet and its associated risks, it is important we understand how families manage and negotiate cyber-security within the home. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study with thirteen families (14 parents and 19 children) in the south-west of the United Kingdom about their main cyber-security concerns and management strategies. Thematic analysis of the results revealed that families were concerned about cyberbullying, online stranger danger, privacy, content, financial scams, and technical threats. Both parents and children drew on family, friends and trusted others as resources, and used a variety of strategies to manage these threats including rules and boundaries around technology, using protective functions of technology, communication and education around safety. There were tensions between parents and children over boundaries, potentially putting families at risk if children break household rules around cyber-security. Finally, parents expressed the feeling they were in a ‘whole new world’ of cyber-security threats, and that positive and negative aspects of technology must be constantly balanced. However, parents also felt that the challenges in managing family security are the same ones that have always faced parents – it is just that the context is now digital as well as physical.
Highlights
Children start using digital technologies at a young age: in 2013, 75% of American children under the age of nine used a tablet or smartphone in the home (Common Sense Media, 2013) and by 2018, 42% of 5–7 year olds and 47% of 8–11 year olds in the United Kingdom owned their own personal tablet (Ofcom, 2019)
There is an argument that rather than parents being solely in charge of household cyber-security, children are becoming the leading experts in technology use in the household (Livingstone, 2009). Children influence their parents, in encouraging them to take up social media and teaching them how to use new technology in the home such as computers and the internet (De Mol et al, 2013; Correa, 2014; Correa et al, 2015). If children influence their parents in their use of new technology, how does this relate to the management of cyber-security within the home? We propose that instead of parents being solely in charge, perhaps the management of cyber-security in the family home is negotiated between parents and their children (Agosto and Abbas, 2017)
RQ1: What Are the Demands Faced by Families, in Terms of Cyber-Security Threats?
Summary
Children start using digital technologies at a young age: in 2013, 75% of American children under the age of nine used a tablet or smartphone in the home (Common Sense Media, 2013) and by 2018, 42% of 5–7 year olds and 47% of 8–11 year olds in the United Kingdom owned their own personal tablet (Ofcom, 2019). Other research concurs that young children (between the ages of 10 and 12) show awareness of both the risks and negative aspects of going online (such as cyber bullying) and the importance of cyber-security, including controlling and being aware of one’s digital footprint (Buchanan et al, 2017; Murray and Buchanan, 2018). Children’s awareness of cyber security and online dangers is uneven, with differences amongst children according to age, gender and socioeconomic status (Livingstone et al, 2017). It is unclear to what extent children’s awareness of online risks translates into secure behaviors (UK Government, 2017), meaning further research is necessary to understand to what extent children are aware of the dangers of cyber-security threats, and their level of knowledge as to how to address them
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