Citation

Desimpelaere L, Hudders L, Van de Sompel D. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2020; 110: e106382.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chb.2020.106382

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

While spending significant time on the Internet, children are often exposed to data disclosure requests from e-service providers. However, they are not always aware of the commercial value of their data, and they often struggle to understand the associated privacy risks. At the same time, scholars have stressed the importance of such knowledge in the adaptation of privacy-protective behavior. This study investigates how privacy literacy training can increase children's (aged 9-13 years) privacy literacy, influence their online disclosure behavior, and affect their privacy concern with regard to different levels of privacy costs (low versus high). Two online experiments (N = 214 and N = 366, respectively) showed that training enhances children's general understanding of data practices and helps children to better protect their privacy, including holding back and fabricating personal information, as well as to identify low privacy risks. The findings also suggested that enhanced privacy literacy evokes more negative brand responses. As one of the first studies to investigate disclosure behavior among young children, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of how children cope with their online privacy and proposes important implications for policymakers and educators.

Language: en

Keywords

Children; Commercial data practices; Disclosure behavior; Online privacy; Privacy literacy; Training