Children’s Online Privacy from Parents’ Perspective

Abstract

A considerable number of online users are either unaware of the side-effects of sharing personal information or lack adequate knowledge about their rights or means to protecting their privacy. This is even more concerning when we realize the vulnerability of children’s information in social media. Their information is often posted online by their parents or guardians, compromising their privacy. In this work, the study is separated into two phases, a survey to understand and attest current situation of parents’ perceptions of children’s online privacy, and based on the points learned, use a game-based learning in an attempt to educate parents when sharing their children’s information online. The initial findings demonstrate that although parents and guardians might have a certain level of awareness and knowledge about their children’s online privacy, some of their online actions still violate their children’s privacy. The results of both experiments show that parents need to be more aware of their actions when sharing children’s personal information, photos and videos on any social media platform. In addition, more needs to be done to develop tools and educate parents on methods to protect children’s online privacy as the use of social media is increasing.