Manotipya, Paweena, M.S. May 2019 Computer Science Children's Online Privacy from the Parents' Perspective: Challenges and A
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MANOTIPYA, PAWEENA, M.S. MAY 2019 COMPUTER SCIENCE CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY FROM THE PARENTS’ PERSPECTIVE: CHALLENGES AND A POSSIBLE SOLUTION (89 pp.) Thesis Advisor: Kambiz Ghazinour There is much evidence exists that a considerable number of users are either unaware of the side- effects of sharing personal information online or lack adequate knowledge about their rights or means concerning protecting their privacy. This becomes even more disturbing when we realize the vulnerability of children’s information in social media environments. Their information is often posted online by their parents or guardians, resulting in a compromise in privacy. In this thesis, the study is separated into two phases, the first of which is a survey to understand parents’ perceptions of children’s online privacy. The second phase is based on the points learned in the first phase, to 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, their actions in some cases still violate their children’s privacy. In addition, parents are unaware of the long-term impact for creating their children’s digital footprints. The results of the survey and the game participation 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 or educate parents on methods to protect children’s online privacy as the advancement of technology and increasing privacy violation cases on vulnerable groups of people become more and more complex. CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY FROM THE PARENTS’ PERSPECTIVE: CHALLENGES AND A POSSIBLE SOLUTION A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Paweena Manotipya May, 2019 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Thesis written by Paweena Manotipya B.A., Chulalongkorn University, 1996 B.A., Concordia University, 2011 M.L.I.S., McGill University, 2013 M.S., Kent State University, 2019 Approved by Kambiz Ghazinour , Advisor Javed Khan , Chair, Department of Computer Science James L. Blank , Dean, College of Arts and Science TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………….………………………...v LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………….………………….….…….vii LIST OF TABLES…………………………………….…………………….…....…ix DEDICATION……………………………………….…………………….….…….x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………….…………………………..…….xi CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION……………….………………………………….1 Introduction………………………………………………………….1 Research Objective…………………………………………………..4 Research Contributions………………………………………….......5 II. BACKGROUND…………………………….....................................6 Current Stage of Children’s Online Privacy in Social Media Services…………………….....................................6 Evidences and Cases………………………………….…………......7 III. RELATED WORKS……………………….……………………….11 Understanding Parents’ Online Behaviors………………………….11 Laws and Legitimate Perspective…………………………………..17 Recommended Systems Researches………………………………..20 IV. PROPOSED WORKS………………...………………….…………27 Parents’ Actions………………………………………….…………27 Survey Questions……………...…………………….……...27 v Survey Method…………………………………..……......28 Survey Results…………………………………..…….......28 Gamification Approach…………………...………………………38 Game-Based Learning………….…………………………38 Introducing to Social Sim Parents…………….…………..39 Game Propositional, Design and Implementation….……..41 V. DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ANALYSIS…………..........53 Research Approvals…………………………………………...…..53 Research Participants………………………………………...........53 Amazon Mechanical Turks workers……………......…..…53 Volunteer Participants…………………...…………….…..54 Social Sim Parents Data Analysis……………………………..…..54 VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK…………….……..…….64 Results and Main Findings…………………………………..…….64 Limitations and Future Work………………………………..…….67 REFERENCES……………………………………….............................................69 APPENDICES A. Children’s Online Privacy Survey Questions…………...……….…….74 B. Social Sim Parents Post-Survey Questions………………............…….86 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Popular social media services that youth registers and parents are aware of………………………………………….4 Figure 3.1 Images of the Momo Challenge hoax…………………………20 Figure 4.1 Percentage of parents opened/created profile on behalf of their child……………………………………………………30 Figure 4.2 Parents’ knowledge of opt-out option…………………………31 Figure 4.3 Parents’ knowledge of remove option………………………...32 Figure 4.4 Parents’ online behavior in different age group on sensitive topics………………………………………………………..33 Figure 4.5 Children’s information shared on social media services in all age group………………………………………………...36 Figure 4.6 Social Sim Parents Simulation Model………………………...45 Figure 4.7 Social Sim Parents’ Scores Flow……………………………..46 Figure 4.8 Example of JavaScript code on post content, privacy setting and opt-out page……………………………………………..47 Figure 4.9 Example of sentiment analysis scoring detection……………...52 Figure 5.1 Photo choices for scenario -1: buying a new home and kid’s first day at school……………………………………………56 Figure 5.2 Photo choices of scenario -2: Toilet training and discipline…….58 Figure 5.3 Photo choices of scenario -3: Children’s achievement and vii vacation rewards……………………………………………59 Figure 5.4 Photo choices of scenario - 4: Children’s academic performance issues and mental health issues………………………………60 Figure 5.5 Photo choices of scenario - 5: Child is diagnosed with ADHD and Learning Disabilities (LD) ………………………………61 Figure 6.1 Percentage of overall participants’ satisfaction after playing the game………………………………………………….....65 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Children report complaints to their parents on various topics…………..35 Table 4.2 Example of score measurement for privacy setting page ………………49 Table 4.3 Example of score measurement on photos chosen……………………...50 Table 4.4 The 5 scenarios given to participants for them to post and select photo choice…………………………………………………51 Table 5.1 Score range and risk level………………………………………………62 Table 5.2 Summary of data collection from simulation…………………………...63 ix DEDICATION To my precious daughter, Maeya Anne-Marie MacKinnon, my motivation and strength to conduct this thesis for a better future for her generation To my parents in Thailand, Prasit and Patcharin Manotipya, for being my best role models and supporting me with your unconditional love Thank you for believing in me I am grateful every day to have all of you in my life I could never have become the person today without all of your faith, love and encouragement. x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Kambiz Ghazinour, for having faith in me and for offering me this opportunity to achieve my dream in the field of computer science two years ago. I am grateful for his continuous support of my thesis research, and for his greatest generosity, patience, motivation and immense knowledge. His valuable guidance and insight encouraged me to be successful today. I could not have imagined completing this thesis without his persistence and encouragement. I also would like to express my gratitude towards my thesis committee members, Professor Angela Guercio and Professor Xiang Lian, for their insightful guidance, comments and encouragement towards my thesis research. In addition to my advisor and the committee members, my sincere gratitude also goes to Professor Marianne Martens, Associate Professor and MLIS Program Coordinator, School of Information Science, who provided insightful guidance and assisted me to successfully conduct the first phase of this research experiment. Last but not the least, my sincere thanks to my fellow labmates at the Advanced Information Security and Privacy Lab (AISP), for their encouragement, stimulating discussions, food for thought, emotional support, and the sleepless nights we were working together to meet deadlines. It has been a delight and privilege to fuse together research with faith and support from all of you. Thank you for your inspiration and for being a part of my journey in this thesis paper. Paweena Manotipya April 10th, 2019, Kent, Ohio. xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction The world is changing rapidly toward a digital era with worldwide accessibility to the internet. As personal computers, tablets and mobile phones become part of everyday life, searching and sharing information is easier and more accessible than ever before. The most popular category in the World Wide Web is social media; it comes in many forms, including social networks, mobile applications, web-based pages, blogs, chat apps, and even social gaming. According to the website Statista, in 2017, 2.46 billion people used a form of social networking, and this number is expected to increase to approximately 3.02 billion users by 2021 [1]. Although the increasing number of social media users is expected to come from countries with larger population like China and India, North American countries currently have the highest penetration rate of social networks with 70 % of the population has at least one social account [1]. Social media platforms are used in various purposes and levels, from personal interests to business opportunities and government regulations. Among those users, parents and caregivers are one of the biggest groups that use social media daily. According to a survey conducted by