skip to main content
10.1145/3678884.3681874acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagescscwConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Examining Mainstream News Media Narratives on Youth Online Safety

Published: 13 November 2024 Publication History

Abstract

People form their perspectives and opinions from their experiences and exposure to different information. Despite the growing literature on adolescent online safety, mainstream news media continues to be a large influence in shaping public perceptions of online safety. Understanding these narratives is essential for developing effective strategies to protect young internet users. This paper investigates the narratives surrounding youth online safety as depicted in mainstream news media. Through a systematic review of 157 news articles, we found three prevalent narratives: 1) a focus on negative youth risk experiences and heightened concerns regarding mental health issues, 2) an emphasis on restrictive practices as a primary intervention strategy, and 3) a lack of youth perspectives in online safety narratives. Our work highlights significant trends and discrepancies compared to current academic research on youth online safety. The insights from our findings offer important implications for media representation and the development of effective online safety strategies for youth.
Content Warning: This paper discusses sensitive topics, such as emotional trauma, sexual exploitation, self-harm, and other adverse life events of children, which may be triggering. Reader discretion is advised.

References

[1]
2024. Kids Off Social Media Act | U.S. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii. https://www.schatz.senate.gov/kosma [Online; accessed 19. Jul. 2024].
[2]
Zainab Agha, Karla Badillo-Urquiola, and Pamela J Wisniewski. 2023. " Strike at he Root": Co-designing Real-Time Social Media Interventions for Adolescent Online Risk Prevention. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 7, CSCW1 (2023), 1--32.
[3]
Zainab Agha, Neeraj Chatlani, Afsaneh Razi, and Pamela Wisniewski. 2020. Towards Conducting Responsible Research with Teens and Parents Regarding Online Risks. In Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA) (CHI EA '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1--8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3334480.3383073.
[4]
Zainab Agha, Jinkyung Park, Ruyuan Wan, Naima Samreen Ali, Yiwei Wang, Dominic Difranzo, Karla Badillo-Urquiola, and Pamela J. Wisniewski. 2024. Tricky vs. Transparent: Towards an Ecologically Valid and Safe Approach for Evaluating Online Safety Nudges for Teens. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Honolulu, USA) (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642313.
[5]
Naima Samreen Ali, Sarvech Qadir, Ashwaq Alsoubai, Munmun De Choudhury, Afsaneh Razi, and Pamela J. Wisniewski. 2024. "I'm gonna KMS": From Imminent Risk to Youth Joking about Suicide and Self-Harm via Social Media. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Honolulu, USA) (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 999, 18 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642489.
[6]
Ashwaq Alsoubai, Afsaneh Razi, Zainab Agha, Shiza Ali, Gianluca Stringhini, Munmun De Choudhury, and Pamela J. Wisniewski. 2024. Profiling the Offline and Online Risk Experiences of Youth to Develop Targeted Interventions for Online Safety. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 8, CSCW1, Article 114 (apr 2024), 37 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3637391.
[7]
Karla Badillo-Urquiola, Zainab Agha, Denielle Abaquita, Scott B. Harpin, and Pamela J. Wisniewski. 2024. Towards a Social Ecological Approach to Supporting Caseworkers in Promoting the Online Safety of Youth in Foster Care. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 8, CSCW1, Article 135 (apr 2024), 28 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3637412.
[8]
Karla Badillo-Urquiola, Scott Harpin, and Pamela Wisniewski. 2017. Abandoned but not forgotten: Providing access while protecting foster youth from online risks. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children. 17--26.
[9]
Karla Badillo-Urquiola, Zachary Shea, Zainab Agha, Irina Lediaeva, and Pamela Wisniewski. 2021. Conducting Risky Research with Teens: Co-Designing for the Ethical Treatment and Protection of Adolescents. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 4, CSCW3, Article 231 (jan 2021), 46 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3432930.
[10]
Karla A. Badillo-Urquiola, Arup Kumar Ghosh, and Pamela Wisniewski. 2017. Understanding the Unique Online Challenges Faced by Teens in the Foster Care System. In Companion of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Co-operative Work and Social Computing (Portland, Oregon, USA) (CSCW '17 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 139--142. https://doi.org/10.1145/3022198.3026314.
[11]
Sonia Livingstone, Julia Davidson, Joanne Bryce, Saqba Batool, Ciaran Haughton, and Anulekha Nandi. 2017. Children?s online activities, risks and safety: a literature review by the UKCCIS evidence group. (2017).
[12]
Nora McDonald, Sarita Schoenebeck, and Andrea Forte. 2019. Reliability and Inter-rater Reliability in Qualitative Research: Norms and Guidelines for CSCW and HCI Practice. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 3, CSCW, Article 72 (nov 2019), 23 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359174.
[13]
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2023. Surgeon General Issues New Advisory About Effects Social Media Use Has on Youth Mental Health. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/05/23/surgeon-general-issues-new-advisory-about-effects-social-media-use-has-youth-mental-health.html.
[14]
Ozioma Collins Oguine and Karla Badillo-Urquiola. 2023. You Don't Belong Here: Ableist Microaggressions on Adolescents with Disability (ies) and Special Needs in Social Virtual Reality (VR). In CHI'23: Workshop on Combating Toxicity, Harassment, and Abuse in Online Social Spaces, Hamburg, Germany.
[15]
Matthew J Page, Joanne E McKenzie, Patrick M Bossuyt, Isabelle Boutron, Tammy C Hoffmann, Cynthia D Mulrow, Larissa Shamseer, Jennifer M Tetzlaff, Elie A Akl, Sue E Brennan, et al. 2021. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. International journal of surgery 88 (2021), 105906.
[16]
Anthony T. Pinter, Pamela J. Wisniewski, Heng Xu, Mary Beth Rosson, and Jack M. Caroll. 2017. Adolescent Online Safety: Moving Beyond Formative Evaluations to Designing Solutions for the Future. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children (Stanford, California, USA) (IDC'17). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 352--357. https: //doi.org/10.1145/3078072.3079722.
[17]
Elisa Shearer and Amy Mitchel. 2024. Broad agreement in U.S. -- even among partisans -- on which news outlets are part of the 'mainstream media'. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/05/07/broad-agreement-in-u-s-even-among-partisans-on-which-news-outlets-are-part-of-the-mainstream-media.
[18]
Gareth Terry, Nikki Hayfield, Victoria Clarke, Virginia Braun, et al . 2017. Thematic analysis. The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology 2, 17--37 (2017), 25.
[19]
U.S. Congress. 2023. Kids Online Safety Act. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1409 Accessed: 2024-05--31.
[20]
U.S. Congress. 2023. Protecting Kids on Social Media Act of 2023. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1199/cosponsors.

Index Terms

  1. Examining Mainstream News Media Narratives on Youth Online Safety

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    CSCW Companion '24: Companion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
    November 2024
    755 pages
    ISBN:9798400711145
    DOI:10.1145/3678884
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 13 November 2024

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. adolescent online safety
    2. kids online safety act
    3. kosa
    4. mainstream news media
    5. mental health
    6. social media
    7. youth online safety

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article

    Conference

    CSCW '24
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

    Upcoming Conference

    CSCW '25

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • 0
      Total Citations
    • 96
      Total Downloads
    • Downloads (Last 12 months)96
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)26
    Reflects downloads up to 16 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media