Understanding Adolescent Sensitivity to Doxing: The Role of Cybersecurity Education and Socio-Psychological Factors

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Safeguarding in a digital society: Opportunities and challenges

Proposal

As adolescents increasingly integrate their lives into digital spaces, traditional offline issues have shifted online, with doxing becoming a significant concern. Doxing involves the non-consensual release of personal information to harm or intimidate victims, raising critical issues of privacy. While extensive research has explored cyberbullying, doxing remains less studied, particularly regarding adolescents' sensitivity to privacy breaches. This study examines how digital and socio-psychological factors, alongside cybersecurity education, shape adolescents' awareness and perceptions of doxing. Despite their advanced digital skills, adolescents are paradoxically more vulnerable to cybercrime, including doxing, than older generations. This discrepancy highlights the limitations of current educational approaches that focus solely on digital skills without incorporating comprehensive online safety strategies. The study evaluates the effectiveness of cybersecurity education in preparing youth to manage online threats, reflecting contemporary concerns about the impact of digital transformation on education.
Doxing represents a nuanced challenge in digital safety, with limited research on adolescents' sensitivity to privacy issues. This study investigates how cybersecurity factors (e.g., cyber hygiene, digital behaviors) and socio-psychological factors (e.g., trust, social anxiety) influence students' perceptions of doxing, using data from the PISA 2022 digital literacy framework. Multiple linear regression is employed to analyze how these factors affect emotional responses to doxing.
The analysis reveals key insights into adolescents' emotional responses to doxing, particularly regarding their sensitivity to privacy breaches. Technical skills for changing device settings had a minimal impact on emotional distress, suggesting that they alone do not significantly mitigate the effects of doxing. However, trust in friends significantly reduced emotional distress, indicating that strong social support serves as a protective factor. Conversely, adolescents who are more critical and engaged in online practices exhibited heightened sensitivity to privacy breaches, linking digital awareness with emotional vulnerability. Communication about personal worries did not significantly alleviate distress, highlighting that communication alone is insufficient. These findings emphasize that doxing involves not only technical aspects but also human factors like trust, social dynamics, and sensitivity to privacy.
These results underscore the need to rethink cybersecurity education. While technical skills are important, adolescents also require education on cyber hygiene, which encompasses both practical aspects of data protection and the ethical and emotional dimensions of digital safety. Despite their technological savvy, adolescents need to learn proper online behavior and understand the seriousness of cyberbullying, including doxing. Those with more robust cybersecurity education, particularly in areas such as password management and personal information protection, demonstrated greater resilience against the emotional impact of doxing.
In conclusion, this study advocates for a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity education that builds technical skills while also fostering emotional resilience and ethical awareness. By providing empirical evidence on adolescents' sensitivity to privacy and the factors influencing their perceptions of doxing, the research offers valuable insights for enhancing educational practices and policies. Addressing the human aspects of digital threats is crucial to ensuring that students are not only proficient in technology use but also equipped to navigate the complex ethical and security challenges of the digital age.

Authors

• Sara Lee, Miami University (Ohio)

• Kihye Yi, Korea University