CSUN Marketing Professors Launch Campaign to Teach Elementary and Middle Schoolers About Online Privacy
CSUN Marketing Professors Launch Campaign to Teach Elementary and Middle Schoolers About Online Privacy
California State University Northridge
The Youth-Driven Information Privacy Education Campaign (YDIPEC) launched in August to help young people and their parents learn to safeguard their privacy online. The campaign is the culmination of a year-long grant awarded to California State University, Northridge marketing professors Kristen Walker and Tina Kiesler.
A $193,000 grant from the Digital Trust Foundation supported an effort by Walker, Kiesler and about a dozen CSUN students as they worked with Los Angeles-area middle school-aged youth to help them understand their sharing behaviors and attitudes while online.
“It’s been a cool experience to see the project come to life,” said research project manager Summer Malone, a spring 2016 CSUN marketing graduate.
During their research, they found that regulations under the Child Online Protection Act say social media websites cannot advertise to children under 13 but, in reality they aren’t doing much to stop it. Children can still access the sites even if it involves misstating their age online.