Information Privacy Management for Adolescents

According to a nationally representative survey by Pew Research Center, American teenagers ages 12 to 17 care about their privacy. Even as youth share increasing amounts of information online (and have information about them shared by others), they also take steps to manage what can be seen and who can access it. It was also found that over two thirds of teen internet users have asked for or sought out advice on managing their privacy online. Teens are just as likely to reach out to their friends and peers as they are to reach out to their parents for advice. Also, overall, younger teens (those ages 12-13) are a bit more likely to seek out privacy management advice from any source than are 14-17 year olds. Similarly, girls are a bit more likely than boys to seek out advice on managing their privacy online from any source, and are also more likely to specifically seek out such advice from siblings or cousins and from friends or other peers. Although teens of all racial and socio-economic backgrounds are equally likely to seek out or ask for advice on privacy management generally, white teens and those from high-income and high-education households, are particularly likely to turn to their parents for advice.

Lenhart, A., Madden, M., Cortesi, S., Gasser, U., & Smith, A. (2013). Where teens seek online privacy advice: Teens often rely on themselves and the guidance they get from the websites they use to figure out how to manage their privacy online—but when they do seek advice, they go primarily to peers and parents. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/files/old-media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_TeensandPrivacyAdvice.pdf