“… They don’t really listen to people”. Young people’s concerns and recommendations for improving online experiences
| Date | 13 May 2019 |
| Pages | 167-182 |
| Published date | 13 May 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-11-2018-0090 |
| Author | Helen Creswick,Liz Dowthwaite,Ansgar Koene,Elvira Perez Vallejos,Virginia Portillo,Monica Cano,Christopher Woodard |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information & communications technology |
“...They don’t really listen
to people”
Young people’s concerns and recommendations
for improving online experiences
Helen Creswick,Liz Dowthwaite and Ansgar Koene
Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, UK
Elvira Perez Vallejos
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, UK
Virginia Portillo and Monica Cano
Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, UK, and
Christopher Woodard
Department of Philosophy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The voices of childrenand young people have been largely neglected in discussionsof the extent
to which the internettakes into account their needs and concerns.This paper aims to highlight young people’s
lived experiencesof being online.
Design/methodology/approach –Results are drawn from the UnBias project’s youth led discussions,
“Youth Juries”withyoung people predominantly aged between13 and 17 years.
Findings –Whilst the young peopleare able to use their agency online in some circumstances,many often
experience feelings of disempowermentand resignation, particularly in relation to the terms and conditions
and user agreementsthat are ubiquitous to digital technologies, socialmedia platforms and other websites.
© Helen Creswick, Liz Dowthwaite, Ansgar Koene, Elvira Perez Vallejos, Virginia Portillo, Monica
Cano and Christopher Woodard. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published
under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute,
translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial
purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this
licence maybe seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The authors would like to acknowledge the thoughtful contributions of Jacob LaVioletee and Caio
Machado, from the Oxford Internet Institute, to a previous draft of this paper. The authors would also
like to acknowledge the contribution of all project participants and all project activities to the ideas
that underpin this paper.
Funding: This work was supported by EPSRC Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security grant
“UnBias: Emancipating users against algorithmic biases for a trusted digital economy”(EP/
N02785X/1). Elvira Perez Vallejos acknowledges the financial support of the NIHR Nottingham
Biomedical Research Centre.
Copyright: Copyright remains with the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Improving
online
experiences
167
Received30 November 2018
Revised23 January 2019
Accepted29 January 2019
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.17 No. 2, 2019
pp. 167-182
EmeraldPublishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-11-2018-0090
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
Practical implications –Although changes are afoot aspart of the General Data Protection Regulation
(herein the GDPR) to simplify the terms and conditionsof online platforms (European Union, 2016), it offers
little practicalguidance on how it should be implemented to children. The voices and opinions of childrenand
young people are put forward as suggestionsfor how the “clear communication to data subjects”required by
Article 12 of the GDPR in particularshould be implemented, for example, recommendationsabout how terms
and conditionscan be made more accessible.
Originality/value –Children and youngpeople are an often overlooked demographic of online users.This
paper argues for the importanceof this group being involved in any changes that may affect them, by putting
forward recommendationsfrom the children and young people themselves.
Keywords Ethics, Youth Juries, Disempowerment, Agency, Resignation, Transparency,
Informed Consent, Recommendations
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
A body of scholarly research has emerged that considers how digital technologies and the
online world intersect with the experiences of children and young people, revealing many
ethical concerns. Research has identifiedthe risks (e.g. of physical harm) that may be posed
to children online (Livingstone et al.,2010;Livingstone and Haddon, 2009), as well as the
impact of digital technologies on children’s well-being and development (Children’s
Commissioner, 2018;Kidron and Rudkin,2017;McDool et al.,2016;Royal Society for Public
Health and Youth Health Movement, 2017). Social media has been shown to have some
potentially damaging effects on children’s well-being, including worsening children’s
anxiety, disrupting their sleep patterns andheightening their concerns around body image
(Royal Society for Public Health and Youth Health Movement, 2017).Moreover, a study by
McDool et al. (2016) found that increased time spent on social media was correlated with
children having a decreased level of overall satisfaction with their lives. Such findings
indicate a concerning lack of ethical consideration by internet providers of their effects on
children and young people,leading some to argue that the digital world is not fit for purpose
in meeting the needs of these groups (Children’s Commissioner, 2017;Kidron and Rudkin,
2017).
Research addressing the intersection of digital technologies and children has revealed
other ethical concerns in relation to their data. Children’s use of the internet has been
shown to have increased rapidly (Frith, 2017), with 2016 signifying a substantial shift in
children’s behaviour as they now spend more time online than they do watching
television (Childwise, 2016). The internet has become an intrinsic part of young people’s
lives as they grow up in a digital age; however, young people risk becoming “datafied”,
meaning that substantial amounts of information are being collected about their lives,
posing concerns for their privacy and ability to consent (Lievens and Verdoodt, 2017;
Lupton and Williamson, 2017). This datafication of children’s lives has led some scholars
to express apprehension that little is being done to tackle the issue: “there remains little
evidence that specific instruments to safeguard children’srightsinrelationto
dataveillance have been developed or implemented, and further attention needs to be paid
to these issues”(Lupton and Williamson, 2017, p. 780). Internet providers and platforms
have been accused of harbouring a “cavalier”attitude to the rights and needs of children
by behaving unethically and failing to account for the needs of children (Kidron and
Rudkin, 2017, p. 4). The digital world has not been designed with children and young
people in mind, and as a result, this is having a detrimental effect on their safety and well-
being.
JICES
17,2
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