The Privacy Paradox of Adolescent Online Safety: A Matter of Risk Prevention or Risk Resilience?

By taking a more “teen-centric” instead of a “parent-centric” approach to adolescent online safety, researchers and designers can help teens foster a stronger sense of personal agency for self-regulating their own online behaviors and managing online risks. Technology should support teens in their developmental goals, including information seeking, learning about rules and boundaries, and maintaining social relationships, in addition to keeping them safe from online risks. However, this goal will only be accomplished once we listen more intently to teens as end users.