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

Elisabeth, Staksrud

Livingstone, Sonia

LSE Research Online

2017­5­10 Parenting for a Digital Future – Please share (because we care): privacy issues in social networkinghttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2016/05/05/elisabeth­staksrud­privacy­issues­in­social­networking­please­share­because­we­care/ 1/4Please share (because we care): privacy issues in social networkingIs it risky to ‘be yourself’ online, sharing intimaciesyou wouldn’t face­to­face? Elisabeth Staksrud andSonia Livingstone explore  the current  issues andopportunities  facing  today’s  children  and  youngpeople  in  Europe.  Elisabeth  is  an  AssociateProfessor  in  the  Department  of  Media  andCommunication  at  the  University  of  Oslo  and  ispart of the Norwegian team of the EU Kids Onlineproject.  Her  work  focusses  on  children,  theinternet, risks and opportunities, regulation and rights. Sonia is Professor of Social Psychology atLSE’s Department of Media and Communications and has more  than 25 years of experience  inmedia  research with  a  particular  focus  on  children  and  young  people. She  directs  the EU KidsOnline project and  is  the  lead  investigator of  the Parenting  for a Digital Future  research project.[Header image credit: Grant, CC BY­NC­ND 2.0]When social media ask you to share, it should also facilitate privacy protection to show that theycare.The enticing invitation to online intimacy is presented daily through the constant, caring enquiry of‘What’s  on  your  mind?’/  ’How  do  you  feel?’  (Facebook),  and  ‘Share  your  life  with  friends  andfamily’  (Instagram).  It  represents not only an  invitation  to use  the service, but  to share because‘we’ care. Thus, sharing personal information, private thoughts and intimate pictures is presentedand  perceived  as  something  positive.  The  social  networking  sites  (SNS) want  to  know  the  realyou, or so they say. Meanwhile, for many young people, sharing personal information through SNSholds  out  the  hope  of  better  control  over  their  own  narrative  at  this  time  of  identity  flux  anduncertainty.The ‘real’ or ‘hoped­for’ imageUsing the internet to socialise with others is crucially about the performance of self: social mediapromise new ways to control the impression we give others, to build the relationships we wish toHome About On our minds From our notes Around the world Publications ResourcesSubscribe 2017­5­10 Parenting for a Digital Future – Please share (because we care): privacy issues in social networkinghttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2016/05/05/elisabeth­staksrud­privacy­issues­in­social­networking­please­share­because­we­care/ 2/4have  and  to  become  the  person we wish  to  be.  For  adults,  it  can  be  about  pictures  of  smilingchildren on a ski  trip,  ‘check­in’ at restaurants and travels, or updates about pleasant things youhave done, rather than about being tired, homes with dirty floors, an absent partner and miserablechildren.For  children and young people,  the  tension between  the  ‘real’  and  ‘hoped­for’  self  can be evenmore  intense,  as  new  and  fast­shifting  forms  of  peer  pressure  must  be  navigated  online  andoffline,  in  often  ambiguous  circumstances  –  especially  in  relation  to  what  is  public,  private,  orsomething in between.Risk or opportunity?The EU Kids Online  project  researched  children’s  online  risk  and  opportunities  in  33 Europeancountries.  In  2010,  after  the  use  of  SNS  had  increased  dramatically,  children  were  asked  tocompare their online and offline experiences. We found that:half (50%) of those aged 11–16 across Europe say it is ‘a bit’ or ‘very’ true of them that they find it easierto be themselves on the internet than when with other people face-to-face;nearly half (45%) say they talk about different things on the internet than when speaking to people face-to-face;one-third (32%) say that they talk about private things online that they do not discuss face-to-face.So, on  the one hand, such activities may have beneficial outcomes, but  they may also  increasethe risk of privacy violations or coercive or hostile interactions. And drawing the line between thetwo  –  both  in  terms  of  young  people’s  activities,  and  for  those  advising  them  –  is  far  fromstraightforward.One  dimension  of  contact  and  conduct  risks  that  particularly  challenges  policy­makers  is  thatthese  partly  rely  on  children’s  agency  and  participation.  Without  necessarily  blaming  them  –indeed,  we  usually  celebrate  youthful  agency  –  this  may  lead  children  to  adopt  risky  or  evendeliberately risk­taking behaviours, sharing intimate information online. In short, sharing and ‘beingyour true self’ online also makes you (more) vulnerable.An example of bullyingThis type of staging in social media interaction can be both positive and negative. So bullying, asan  example,  is  not  just  about  conflict  between  two  (or  more)  people,  or  about  one  personrepeatedly harassing another; it can also be about the audience – how others perceive ‘netizens’,silently observing or actively commenting on the action.If we  look  to  the offline world, a consistent  finding  in  the  literature on aggression and bullying  isthat children who morally agree that it is okay to harass others are themselves more likely to bully.A school culture where children feel  that bullying is not taken seriously can be interpreted as anacceptance of such behaviour, which in turn opens the way for more people to bully.Similarly,  a  digital  culture where  online  harassment  is  prevalent  gives  tacit  acceptance  to  suchbehaviour, as well as lowering the expectations that someone will (or should) intervene to make adifference.And a digital culture where your own personal as well as intimate information is constantly underpressure, constantly encouraged as an opportunity for display, and then collected, systemised andused  for  commercial  and/or  political  purposes,  does  not,  in  turn,  inspire  respect  for  others’personal information.Some advice on becoming ‘good’ digital citizens Home About On our minds From our notes Around the world Publications ResourcesSubscribe 2017­5­10 Parenting for a Digital Future – Please share (because we care): privacy issues in social networkinghttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2016/05/05/elisabeth­staksrud­privacy­issues­in­social­networking­please­share­because­we­care/ 3/4Children are  increasingly engaged  in a social networking environment  that pays  little heed to  itsown ethical  responsibility,  too  readily  shifting  the  goal  posts  in  the  rules  for  displaying  personalinformation, altering privacy norms, or newly connecting people who don’t know each other andfeel no culpability  regarding each other. At  the same  time, society calls ever  louder  for  childrenthemselves to act responsibly.Is  this  fair,  and  is  it  feasible,  when  the  adults  (both  individuals  and  companies)  who  aresupposedly their role models so often (and now so visibly) act differently? In figuring out how bestto support young people in becoming ‘good’ digital citizens, our EU Kids Online research providessome helpful pointers:Developing safety skills encourage other skills, and more skills are associated with more activities online.So teaching children to be safer need not curtail and may even encourage online opportunities ratherthan giving them restrictions.Online and offline vulnerability are interrelated. Children with more psychological problems suffer morefrom online as well as offline risks, which makes promoting internet access among parents andsufficient digital skills among parents and teachers crucial.Children who grow up in socially disadvantaged families often find it difficult to take advantage of theopportunities offered by social media or to cope adequately with the risks that they might encounterwhile using them. Every stakeholder in society needs to develop approaches that enable all citizens touse social media for actively participating in society.Bullying and online harassment has serious and long-term consequences. Supporting both those whohave been bullied and those who have bullied others online will decrease the occurrence and thereforethe consequences of online bullying.Having cumulated research on children and online risk and opportunities  in Europe for almost adecade, our key policy recommendations  to  industry providers are as  follows.  Industry providersshould:ensure ‘safety by default’, and enable customisable, easy-to-use safety features, accessible to those withonly basic digital literacy;ensure age limits are real and effective, using appropriate methods of age verification where possible,accompanied by sufficient safety information;implement tools so that under-18s can remove content that may be damaging to their reputation and/orpersonal integrity;ensure commercial content is clearly distinguishable, is age-appropriate, ethical and sensitive to localcultural values, gender and ‘race’;support independent evaluation and testing of all specified safety tools and features;develop a shared resource of standardised industry data regarding the reporting of risks.When social media ask you to share, privacy protection should also be facilitated to show that theycare. This  includes respect  for users’ privacy and personal  information, and ensuring that  this  isnot misused.More use, not lessWhat keeps children safe, sound and digitally resilient is not the lack of use, but more use. It is notthe  prevention  of  experiences  or  content,  but  the  prevention  of  unethical  behaviour  and  theencouragement  of  self­efficacy,  respect  for  others,  and  the  respect  and  care  of  precious  digitalgoods  (including personal  information)  that makes SNS use a positive opportunity  rather  than arisky activity. Home About On our minds From our notes Around the world Publications ResourcesSubscribe 2017­5­10 Parenting for a Digital Future – Please share (because we care): privacy issues in social networkinghttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2016/05/05/elisabeth­staksrud­privacy­issues­in­social­networking­please­share­because­we­care/ 4/4May 5th, 2016 | Around the world, Featured | 0 CommentsHome About On our minds From our notes Around the world Publications ResourcesSubscribe 

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

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