Perspective of understanding for Children’s Privacy and Security

Authors

  • Lina M Cook University of North Georgia, USA
  • Jianjun Yang University of North Georgia, USA
  • Ju Shen University of Dayton, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol3.iss8.414

Keywords:

social network, children’s privacy, ethical and social issues

Abstract

The thirteen years of age requirement to open any social network account does not guarantee that children under this age would not have access to social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or YouTube just to mention some. The reason for this is that children want to be a part of this technological revolution, and create these accounts by lying about their age, or are aid by their parents without realizing the consequences this action might bring. While these social networks disclose that they delete information belonging to children under 13 from their databases as soon as they are aware of it, it is questionable if they are doing enough to protect children’s privacy , and if they should be liable for any incident related to this issue since such is widely known, but apparently neglected. Unfortunately, by social network administrators not reinforcing the age requirement policy, and launching features that makes its user’s personal information available to third parties, are indirectly exposing children with fraudulent accounts at risk of being victims of more serious ethical and social issues such as cyber bulling, and sex crimes. While it is determined that social network has little control over this issue, all which is left to do, is to provide parents with education and control of their children’s social network activity interaction to protect their privacy and keep them safe.

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Author Biographies

  • Lina M Cook, University of North Georgia, USA

    Department of Computer Science and Information Systems

  • Jianjun Yang, University of North Georgia, USA

    Department of Computer Science and Information Systems

  • Ju Shen, University of Dayton, USA

    Department of Computer Science

References

Boyd, Danah, Eszter Hargittai, Jason Schultz, and John PAlfrey. "Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook about Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’ | Boyd | First Monday." Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook about Age: Unintended Consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’ | Boyd | First Monday. N.p., 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i11.3850

Mayers, Michael. "How Instagram Became the Social Network for Tweens." . N.p., 8 Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

Wolford, Josh. "Facebook Still Has a Big Problem with Underage Users, and They Know It." WebProNews. N.p., 24 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

Reynolds, George Walter. Ethics in Information Technology. 5th ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, n.d. Print. p. 361-362

Sedghi, Ami. "Cyberbullying Contacts to Childline up by 87%." N.p., 9 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.[6] Livingstone, S., Haddon, L., Görzig, A., and Ólafsson, K. (2011). Risks and safety on the

internet: the UK report. LSE, London: EU Kids Online

"InternetSafety101.org: Statistics." Enough Is Enough InternetSafety101.org: Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.

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Published

2015-08-01

How to Cite

Cook, L. M., Yang, J., & Shen, J. (2015). Perspective of understanding for Children’s Privacy and Security. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 3(8), 91-96. https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol3.iss8.414