Please share (because we care): privacy issues in social networking

Is it risky to ‘be yourself’ online, sharing intimacies you wouldn’t face-to-face? Elisabeth Staksrud and Sonia Livingstone explore the current issues and opportunities facing today’s children and young people in Europe. Elisabeth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo and is part of the Norwegian team of the EU Kids Online project. Her work focusses on children, the internet, risks and opportunities, regulation and rights. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more than 25 years of experience in media research with a particular focus on children and young people. She directs the EU Kids Online project and is the lead investigator of the Parenting for a Digital Future research project

Children in the Online World

What is online risk? How can we best protect children from it? Who should be responsible for this protection? Is all protection good? Can Internet users trust the industry? These and other fundamental questions are discussed in this book. Beginning with the premise that the political and democratic processes in a society are affected by the way in which that society defines and perceives risks, Children in the Online World offers insights into the contemporary regulation of online risk for children (including teens), examining the questions of whether such regulation is legitimate and whether it does in fact result in the sacrifice of certain fundamental human rights. The book draws on representative studies with European children concerning their actual online risk experiences as well as an extensive review of regulatory rationales in the European Union, to contend that the institutions of the western European welfare states charged with protecting children have changed fundamentally, at the cost of the level of security that they provide. In consequence, children at once have more rights with regard to their personal decision making as digital consumers, yet fewer democratic rights to participation and protection as ’digital citizens’. A theoretically informed, yet empirically grounded study of the relationship between core democratic values and the duty to protect young people in the media-sphere, Children in the Online World will appeal to scholars and students across the social sciences with interests in new technologies, risk and the sociology of childhood and youth. Book: The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license

Policy Implications and Rrecommendations: Now What?

The EU Kids Online survey represents the most substantial knowledge base to date about young people’s online experiences in Europe. Chapters in this volume highlight findings that provide new kinds of evidence of significant interest for policy makers. They address questions which range from how to respond to the fact that the internet is now firmly in children’s lives; how to develop appropriate strategies for internet safety while responding to shifting patterns of access and use; how to manage those enduring risks to children’s welfare that appear to be amplified in the online world, and deal with risks that are genuinely new; how to best mobilise mediation that can be effective; and how, in the context of wide diversity across Europe, to promote equality and inclusiveness? In this chapter, we discuss the principal contours of the policy response to these questions thus far, asking whether current policy is working and what, if any, are the gaps in policy formulations on internet safety? Online safety has been debated in policy circles ever since the World Wide Web was opened for commercial and public participation, often without reliable research on its appropriateness or effectiveness. Responding to demands for greater regulation and control, policy makers have since the mid 1990s sought to support the opportunities of the Information Society, whilst minimizing its apparent downsides and increased risks for children and families brought about by a largely unregulated internet. Responses have included legislative, regulatory, law enforcement, awareness and educational measures involving a diverse number of stakeholders. The European Union has been to the fore in this regard, but so also has the Council of Europe, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UNICEF, UNESCO, and the Internet Governance Forum, to name but a few of the international actors within the increasingly busy space for policy debate on internet safety

Are there asymmetric power relations in a product development project involving small enterprises and large R&D-institutions? - A case study in influence and dependency in R&D-collaborations

The objective of this thesis is to answer the main research question: Can we observe the existence of power imbalance in R&D-collaboration, and how is this power imbalance formed by dependency and influence? The main research question is separated into three subordinated research questions; (1) can we identify an asymmetric power balance between research institutions and small enterprises? (2) How is the power distribution between the research institution and customer company in relation to influence? (3) To which degree is the small enterprise dependent on the research institution, and how can the small enterprise obtain a level of dependency that optimizes the value of the collaboration? The approach is a descriptive case study of four separate R&D-projects involving SINTEF and one small company. The empirical data is gathered from ten individual interviews with representatives from SINTEF and representatives from their customers. The theoretical basis is a preliminary literature study by Gjølme and Staksrud Hansen (2014) with a supplemental literature study. The theory researched is within power, which is a controversial and comprehensive field of research - subject to tension between researchers all over the world. One of the main topics that are discussed is the basics of power theory - what is the definition of power, and how do you achieve a power submissive or dominant position towards another? In this thesis, we have viewed power as an outcome of two distinct relative power sources Influence and Dependency. Two separate frameworks have been developed to visualise grades of influence and dependency, based on separate dimensions or principles. The findings from these frameworks are discussed to answer ten theory-based propositions used to conclude the research questions. The main conclusions are that asymmetric power balance might occur in R&D-collaborations, but the asymmetry often varies based on the customer company s experience. An important discovery is that the power asymmetry does not have a negative impact on the process as the more experienced part tries to compensate for the lack of experience with the other actor. This is considered as an advantageously power execution, if the power dominance is positive. A less sensational discovery is that these projects are similar to other projects, when it comes to planning, contracting and implementation. The most influential implication is that the theory-based frameworks are functional to visualise grading of influence and dependency in an R&D-collaboration, and in the concluding chapter we present two sets of recommendations for optimising the collaboration, one set for the research institution and one set for the small company engaging the research institution

Where policy and practice collide: Comparing US,South African and European Union approaches toprotecting children online

That children have a right to protection when they go online is an internationally well-established principle, upheld in laws that seek to safeguard children from online abuse and exploitation. However, children’s own transgressive behaviour can test the boundaries of this protection regime, creating new dilemmas for lawmakers the world over. This article examines the policy response from both the Global North and South to young people’s online behaviour that may challenge adult conceptions of what is acceptable, within existing legal and policy frameworks. It asks whether the ‘childhood innocence’ implied in much protection discourse is a helpful basis for promoting children’s rights in the digital age. Based on a comparative analysis of the emerging policy trends in Europe, South Africa and the United States, the article assesses the implications for policy-makers and child welfare specialists as they attempt to redraw the balance between children’s online safety whilst supporting their agency as digital citizens

A comparative analysis of European press coverage of children and the internet

This article reports a content analysis of press coverage of children and the internet in order to examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in the news values framing accounts of the benefits from and risks facing children online. By comparing media reporting in 14 European countries, the study found greater coverage of online risks than opportunities across Europe, which appears to be due to the high position of crime stories on the news agenda.. Thus readers, including parents, are exposed to media representations that often show the online world as being risky for children, which may affect perceptions of the prevalence of risk. However, there is national variation in terms of which risks receive more press attention, meaning that parents in different countries are potentially sensitised to different risks

Evaluation of the Implementation of the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU Part I: General Report

Executive Summary " This report is a part of the European Commission s commitment to and support of the self-regulatory initiative from social networks to implement Safer Social Networking Principles signed by 20 social networking companies in 2009.The report analyzes the 19 self-declarations1 submitted by the signatories of the Principles as well as 25 of the services offered among these companies in order to give an overview of the general level of implementation. All services have been tested in their original language version by a team of 13 national and two lead experts. " The report consists of two parts the first part gives an overall analysis of findings across the services evaluated. The second part consists of individual testing reports for all SNSs that have signed the agreement. " Comparing the compliance between the Principles and what is reported in the selfdeclaration reports excellent compliance is found with eight SNSs, eight services have good compliance, five services have fair compliance, and one service has poor compliance. " On an overall level, the compliance between what is stated in the self-declaration reports against what is found on the services themselves is assessed with the following results: " Excellent compliance is found with two SNSs, ten services have good compliance, ten services have fair compliance, while no service is assessed as having poor compliance between the self-declaration and what was found on the service during testing. " Principle 3 ( empower users ) Principle 6 ( Encourage safe use approach to Privacy ) are the principles best implemented. Also Principle 1 ( Raise awareness ) has a high score on compliance. " Principle 2 ( Age-appropriate services ) and Principle 4 ( Easy to use mechanisms for reporting violations ) are assessed to be the principles where the compliance between what is stated in the self-declaration and what is observed on the service itself is the lowest, as the majority of services are assessed to be partially compliant. " Comparing the self-declaration reports with the services themselves, there is a general under-reporting on measures and tools available on the site. On the negative side this indicates that the self-declaration reports are incomplete; on the positive side more relevant safety measures are available to the ordinary user than stated by the SNSs