Youth and Aging out of Cyber-Risk: Privacy, Self-Responsibilization and Having Nothing to Hide Online

• In Event: Perspectives on the Relationship between Age, Maturation and Crime

Abstract

Focus groups (n=115) were conducted with youth from 12 to 19 years of age to examine their perceptions and experiences with cyber-risk. Consistent with prior research, emergent theme analyses revealed that the risks youth identify as most salient are related to the management of privacy, especially regarding social media. Youth revealed that as they mature, beyond diverse strategies of risk management online, they come to internalize notions of self-responsibilization in relation to online risk. This neoliberal stance led many of our participants to acquiesce to the idea that attaining and maintaining meaningful privacy online is an ephemeral goal. As youth ‘age out’ of cyber-risk, they buttress this ethos by shifting less to the management of privacy and more towards a position that privacy is not a concern given that they have ‘nothing to hide’. Trends according to age, gender, and location—eastern or western Canada, urban or rural—are highlighted.

Authors

• Michael Adorjan, University of Calgary

• Rose Ricciardelli, Memorial University of Newfoundland