Abstract

Given the increasingly young age that children are using technology and accessing
the internet and its associated risks, it is important we understand how families
manage and negotiate cyber-security within the home. We conducted an exploratory
qualitative study with thirteen families (14 parents and 19 children) in the south-west
of the United Kingdom about their main cyber-security concerns and management
strategies. Thematic analysis of the results revealed that families were concerned about
cyberbullying, online stranger danger, privacy, content, financial scams, and technical
threats. Both parents and children drew on family, friends and trusted others as
resources, and used a variety of strategies to manage these threats including rules and
boundaries around technology, using protective functions of technology, communication
and education around safety. There were tensions between parents and children over
boundaries, potentially putting families at risk if children break household rules around
cyber-security. Finally, parents expressed the feeling they were in a ‘whole new world’
of cyber-security threats, and that positive and negative aspects of technology must be
constantly balanced. However, parents also felt that the challenges in managing family
security are the same ones that have always faced parents – it is just that the context is
now digital as well as physical.

Experimental or not?

This study was non-experimental as it was a semi-structured interview ie. no manipulation of the independent variable.

Qualitative or Quantitative?

In the abstract they list their study as an “exploratory qualitative study”. This obviously makes it qualitative. However without their explanation we can still find this out by the style. Semi-structured interviews are more concerned with detailed answers to a few questions not so much number of questions or questions that provide short simple answers.

What was the population?

The population is families in the south west part of the UK with children between 6 and 16. Under the materials and methods subheading this is the group of people they said they were targeting and asked for volunteers from.

What was the sample?

The sample size was 13 families and they were found by convenience sampling. The researchers simply asked for volunteers in the area and these 13 families are the ones who signed up.

Method of measurement

There were 5 questions asked to every family.

1. What are the demands upon families in terms of the cyber-security risks they are concerned about?
2. What resources do families draw upon to manage these demands, and what vulnerabilities limit their response?
3. What are the costs and benefits of using new technology for families?
4. What are the coping responses that families use in terms of strategies to cope with the demands?
5. What are some of the social, technological and psychological outcomes of the changes in technology adoption for families in the United Kingdome?

(Muir & Joinson, 2020)

Method of analysis

The interviews were recorded word for word and later on put through a process called thematic analysis. All thematic analysis does is look for patterns, or themes, from one interview to the next.

Conclusion

It was found that trying to manage cyber-security in the next generation is proving to be an ongoing challenge with kids not wanting to follow their parents internet rules. Some of the classical problems such as bullying are still present in the digital age help to bring this problem to a sort of middle ground where the parents feel that managing cyber-security in their homes is a sort of “same but different” problem (Muir & Joinson, 2020).

How is this information useful to me?

I am attending FHSU for a degree in cyber security so learning what kind of problems the every day joe has with protecting themselves, especially with younger kids who try to find ways around it, is vital information to me. In the future I would like to own my own firm and provide reliable security fixes to anyone and everyone from big businesses to the average family home. Knowing what the family as a whole is doing to cause security problems is half the job.

What’s the next step?

This study was done in one section of the UK. I believe the next step in this study should be to repeat it all around the world. See if the problems and attitudes are the same in the US, China, and Russia. Or does every county have its own unique set of problems, or do they see something as normal that another country views as an issue?

Citation and article PDF

Muir, K., & Joinson, A. (2020, March 12). An Exploratory Study Into the Negotiation of Cyber-Security Within the Family Home. Bath, United Kingdom; Frontiers in Psychology.

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