Information Security of Children and Adolescents According to Parents and Teachers (Part 2: The Results of an Empirical Study)

Abstract

In this paper we present a second part of the study on information security of children and adolescents according to parents and teachers. This part of the study focuses at empirical research results aimed in studying the so-called "naive theories" about information security. 136 people (aged 21 to 62 years) attended the study. We based on the following hypotheses : 1) the group of parents and teachers understand similarly the issue of information threat for children and adolescents, yet they have different understandings of the dangerous effects of information on children and adolescents: parents underestimate the seriousness of the effects compared with teachers; 2) according to parents and teachers, the formers are primarily responsible for information security of children; while teachers expect parents to monitor, prohibit, restrict the access to information for children and adolescents. Parents, in turn, expect teachers to train children and teenagers to observe the safety procedures, as well as use Internet safely. Our assumptions are confirmed partly, and study results are discussed in terms of the theory of social representations.