A Comparative Study in the Effectiveness of Interactive E-books to Teach Children Online Privacy and Security
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2021-02-01
Department
University of Baltimore. Division of Science, Information Arts, and Technologies
Program
University of Baltimore. Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture
Citation of Original Publication
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States
This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by the University of Baltimore for non-commercial research and educational purposes.
This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by the University of Baltimore for non-commercial research and educational purposes.
Subjects
child-computer interaction
human factors
online privacy threat models
Usable privacy and security
children's online privacy mental models
children's pandemic threat models
children cybersecurity education
interactive ebook
online safety education
user study
comparative study
security and privacy
online privacy models
human factors
online privacy threat models
Usable privacy and security
children's online privacy mental models
children's pandemic threat models
children cybersecurity education
interactive ebook
online safety education
user study
comparative study
security and privacy
online privacy models
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether interactive e-books could as
effectively teach online privacy and security to children ages 7 through 10 in Maryland,
Virginia, and Maine as to Canadian children. The research replicated a study performed
in Canada (Zhang-Kennedy & Chiasson, 2016), to see if the effects are the same. The
study also investigated the persistence of the privacy models held by Canadian children
identified prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which had informed the design of the
interactive e-book, amongst children in the Eastern Coast region of the United States.
Fifteen parent and children pairs completed the study, which included a device criteria
questionnaire, usability evaluations, a pre-privacy knowledge assessment before co-reading
session, and a post-privacy knowledge assessment after a ten-minute distractor.
Data analysis was conducted for all 15 parent-child pairs. During initial synthesis it
became evident that the design of the interactive e-book was not suitable for children
aged 10, which confirmed the intention of the original Canadian researcher to target
young children aged 7 through 9. Therefore, results for two child participants aged 10
were excluded for the analysis that evaluated the e-book’s effectiveness, but their results
were included in the analysis for the persistence of privacy models. Children in the study
showed an increase in comprehension of online security and improvement on safety conscious
behavior similar to the study involving Canadian children. However, children
in the United States had less positive experiences with the interactive e-book than
children in the Canadian study. Three mental models of privacy were found to have
persisted amongst the child participants in the United States: ‘to be alone’, ‘to hide
secrets/special things’, ‘to keep things to yourself’. One model did not persist after
reading the e-book: ‘to not talk to strangers’ but evolved into ‘don’t trust strangers’. One
new model was identified, ‘don’t let anyone see you’. Additionally, the study identified
some of the ways that children’s mental models of the world were impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, the goal is to provide further empirical evidence and
insight to inform the design of better cybersecurity tools for young children.