Today's teens have tech-saturated lives. And although smartphones and social media offer young people unique ways to connect and share like never before, threats to online personal safety and privacy are still a risk. Do teens care about online privacy? Yes, but they think about it very differently than adults.
YTH(youth+tech+health), the leading partner for those in search of new ways to advance the health of young adults through technology, is sponsoring a contest to get kids interested in online safety. The between2screens Video Contest is an opportunity for 13-17 year olds to create an original video to share ideas about online privacy and safety. The videos can be funny, creative, or even embarrassing!
Winners receive $1500 dollars in each of four categories:FunniestMost CreativeMost EmbarrassingCrowd Favorite
The deadline to submit is June 30th.
YTH worked with The Digital Trust Foundation and Vodafone Americas Foundation to explore the relationship that teens have with online privacy and safety. Their focus was on how young people choose what to share online, what they do when they feel their privacy is being threatened, and what steps they take to protect their online safety. The result was a report, Teen Privacy and Safety Online: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices. The report utilized the latest research on teen privacy and online safety from danah boyd and the Pew Research Center, along with direct interviews with youth about their online safety. Here are some of the key findings:
1.Teens care about social privacy more than the privacy risks posed by third parties.Contrary to 46% of parents being very concerned about companies monitoring their online behavior, a small minority of teens online (9%) said they were concerned about outside company access to their personal information. Teens were more concerned about account hacking and reputation management among their peers.
2.Parental concerns are at odds with teens' confidence in managing their online safety.Parents did not report confidence in a teen's ability to manage their safety online. Almost 72% of parents were concerned about how their child manages their reputation on social media and other networks. In contrast, teens reported high levels of self-efficacy, most often relying on themselves or their peers to fix privacy breaches or maintain security.
3.Self-management of privacy settings is the primary mechanism to control online access.Teens primarily control access to their personal information by managing privacy settings. A majority of teen Facebook users (60%) keep their profiles private. Girls who used Facebook were more likely than boys to have a private profile (70% vs. 50%). In addition, teens are increasingly using peer-to-peer anonymous-sharing apps to maintain privacy and minimize the potential risk for harm.
The more teens know about how to protect themselves online, the better. The video contest is a great way for teens to share what they have learned and to have fun watching the ways other teens choose to share their own experiences. Visit between2screens to find out how to submit your own video. Have fun, be creative, win some cash, and stay safe!