Parents and the Internet: Privacy Awareness, Practices and Control

As children increasingly use the Internet, there have been mounting concerns about their privacy online. As a result, the U.S. Congress enacted the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to prohibit websites from collecting information from children under 13 years of age without verifiable parental consent. Unfortunately, few technologies are available for parents to provide this consent. Further, few parents are aware of the laws and technologies available. This research explored parental awareness of laws and technologies associated with protecting children’s privacy online, and usage of technologies and techniques for parental control, using focus group research. The results of the study are used to propose an emergent framework of factors that will impact use of privacy protection tools and techniques by parents.