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Mental Models of the Internet and Its Online Risks: Children and Their Parent(s)

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HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust (HCII 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13333))

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Abstract

Today, children have access to the Internet from an early age and are therefore considered digital natives. This paper investigates how children (aged five to eight) and their parents perceive and deal with the Internet and the privacy and security risks of being online. Therefore, we extended prior studies of Internet mental models of children. We used a two-fold study design by including drawing tasks in addition to a verbal interview. The drawings allowed us to uncover the tacit knowledge underlying children’s and parents’ mental models.

So far, research focused mainly on the threat models of “being online”, while our study has a more holistic view, investigating general perceptions of the Internet in-depth. In contrast to prior studies, which were mainly conducted outside of Europe with highly-educated participants, we recruited participants in Central Europe with a diverse educational background.

We found that children’s mental models start to take shape beyond physically tangible components between the age of seven to eight years. Hence, we argue that it is important to educate children about the Internet as well as security and privacy issues before that age. For younger children, we suggest using secure and privacy-preserving applications, as they are not yet able to grasp the bigger picture.

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Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work partially supported by the Industry-related Dissertation funding program. SBA Research (SBA-K1) is a COMET Centre within the framework of COMET - Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies Programme and funded by BMK, BMDW, and the province of Vienna. The programs are both managed by FFG.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    Alexandra Mai, Leonard Guelmino & Katharina Pfeffer

  2. SBA Research, Vienna, Austria

    Alexandra Mai, Katharina Pfeffer & Edgar Weippl

  3. CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Saarland, Germany

    Katharina Krombholz

  4. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Edgar Weippl

Authors
  1. Alexandra Mai
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  2. Leonard Guelmino
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  3. Katharina Pfeffer
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  4. Edgar Weippl
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  5. Katharina Krombholz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Mai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA

    Abbas Moallem

A Appendix

A Appendix

1.1 A.1 Pre-study Questionnaire

1. Age

2. Gender

3. Highest completed education

4. Do after-school care/grandparents or others look after your child regularly? If yes, how often?

5. Are you professionally involved with technical aspects of the Internet (IT related fields)?

6. How applicable are the following statements?

Never(1), Rarely(2), Sometimes(3), Often(4), Daily(5)

I use the following Internet services: [*only asked parents]

  • Social Media (Facebook, Xing, Instagram, etc.)

  • VOD (YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc.)

  • Online Shopping (Amazon, ebay, willhaben, etc.)

  • Instant messaging (WhatsApp, Facebook Messanger, Viber, etc.)

  • Online video chat services (Skype, Facetime, etc.)

  • *Email

  • *Online banking

  • Games (just asked during the children’s interview)

7. I am concerned about my privacy and the security of my data when using any of the services listed above. [only asked parents explicitly]

Not at all(1)—I am very concerned (5)

8. How much do the following statements apply to you?

Does not apply(1)—Applies very much (5)

  • I am experienced with technical devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets.

  • I learned about the Internet in the course of my education.

  • I often ask other people for help when I have problems with my computer/smartphone/tablet.

  • I am often asked by other people for help when they have problems with their computer/smartphone/tablet.

1.2 A.2 Pictures for Scenarios

Fig. 5.
figure 5

Pictures shown during user study

Full size image

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Mai, A., Guelmino, L., Pfeffer, K., Weippl, E., Krombholz, K. (2022). Mental Models of the Internet and Its Online Risks: Children and Their Parent(s). In: Moallem, A. (eds) HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13333. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05563-8_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05563-8_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-05562-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-05563-8

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