Cybersafety for Teens

Question: I'm an adolescent medicine physician preparing a presentation on cybersafety for teens for an upcoming presentation to general pediatricians on how to best support their patients with social media use. Do you have any helpful resources or guides that you think I should include or reference in my talk as I prepare?

Answer: Thank you for your question! This is a critical topic to address as studies show that nearly half of adolescents have dealt with harassment online in the form of offensive name-calling (32%), unwanted pornographic images (17%) and threats of physical violence (10%) (Vogels, 2022).

At the same time, it is also important to avoid messages that incite moral panic or send a message that all teens will face serious danger online that they cannot handle. A key element of any approach is to empower adolescents to have agency in navigating the online world and have support to reach out to others if they face a situation that is worrisome to them.

A comprehensive approach to cybersafety includes addressing the emotional safety, physical safety, and privacy of teens.

Although 59% of middle school students demonstrated that they understood appropriate online behaviors, how to protect personal/private information and how to respond if contacted by an internet predator, less than half of those students indicated they would tell a trusted adult if threatening or unkind things were said about them on social media or if they were contacted by a stranger (Kite et al., 2019). Given these findings, it is important for adults to encourage adolescents in their life to come to them with concerns about cybersafety, in addition to educating teens about online safety and privacy.

Along a similar vein, current research emphasizes that family communication is essential in reducing teen’s online risky behaviors (Rutkowski et al., 2021). Transparency, teen involvement and teen-parent communication around online safety measures allows teens to have an active role in maintaining online safety and teaches them how to make responsible decisions on their own. From the teen’s perspective, restrictive rules around access to the internet diminished family communication overall.

Resources pediatricians and other clinicians can share with adolescents and their families:

• For general advice or resources around screens and social media, we suggest reviewing this previously asked question regarding screen time guidelines.
• Common Sense Media has created a number of resources regarding child and adolescent online safety and the ways in which parents, educators, and caregivers can facilitate safe and healthy digital engagement:
  • “How do I protect my kid's privacy online?”, “How can I protect my family’s data privacy?” and “Who is collecting my child’s data, and what are they doing with it?” are brief articles crafted for parents who are looking for strategies to better protect their children’s online privacy. Suggestions for parents include establishing privacy preferences during the initial set-up/registration of any app or website account, reading the fine print in Terms of Service agreements before using a personal email address to register for online accounts.
  • Common Sense has also created parent guides to a number of social media platforms and online games with specific recommendations to promote online safety in respective online spaces. Parent guides include comprehensive descriptions and parenting suggestions for Minecraft, Artificial Intelligence tools, TikTok, Discord, multiplayer online games, Apple AirDrop, Fortnite and more.
• HealthyChildren.org offers some suggestions for online safety and parenting:
  • How to Make a Family Media Use Plan provides instructions for creating customizable family guidelines for media use that meets individual family needs.
  • Your Child’s First Phone: Are They Ready? lays out considerations to make when determining whether a child is prepared to have their own phone and offers additional resources and suggestions for parents who are taking this step.
  • Age-Appropriate Media: Can You Trust Parental Guidance Ratings?
  • Cyberbullying: How to Help Prevent It
  • Sexting: How to Talk With Kids About the Risks
  • Sharenting: 5 Questions to Ask Before You Post
• Culture Reframed is an organization that provides information about educating children about pornography exposure, responding to your child when they are exposed to porn, and many more resources about online exploitation.

References

1. Kite, S. L., Gable, R., & Filippelli, L. (2010). Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviors Regarding the Use of Social Networking Sites. The Clearing House, 83(5), 158–163. 
2. Rutkowski, T. L., Hartikainen, H., Richards, K. E., & Wisniewski, P. J. (2021). Family Communication: Examining the Differing Perceptions of Parents and Teens Regarding Online Safety Communication. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW2), 1–23. 
3. Vogels, E. (2022, December 15). Teens and Cyberbullying 2022. Pew Research Center; Pew Research Center.

Age: 10-24, early adolescence, middle adolescence, late adolescence

Topics: Privacy, cybersecurity, cybersafety, teens, social media

Role: Pediatrician/Clinician