Parental Influence and Teens’ Attitude toward Online Privacy Protection

This study examines the impact of parental influence on teens' attitude toward privacy protection. Survey data show that teens high in concept-oriented family communication tend to engage in discussion mediation, which, in turn, affects their level of privacy concern. In contrast, teens high in socio-oriented communication tend to have more family rules and surf the Internet with parents. Rulemaking mediation is not directly related to teens' level of privacy concern, while cosurfing mediation is related to their level of concern. This study also finds that parental mediation and teens' concern level explain their attitude toward privacy protection measures. Implications for policymakers and educators are discussed. ********** With teens increasingly becoming an influential online retail demographic (Business Wire 2006; Greenspan 2004), e-marketers are targeting them through new interactive marketing platforms such as gamevertising, viral video, and social networking site (Chester and Montgomery 2007; Howard 2006). These marketing practices may open opportunities for communication, product learning, and e-commerce to teens; however, they also raise public concerns about online risks resulting from teen privacy loss (Donnerstein 2002; Lenhart 2005; Willard 2006). Among potential online risks, privacy advocates have addressed financial risks stemming from e-marketers' attempts to collect personal information from teens (Schonberger 2005). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received 10,835 identity theft complaints in 2006 from teens aged eighteen and younger. This is an approximate 13 percent increase over the 9,595 complaints in 2004 (FTC 2007a) and accounts for about 5 percent of the 225,532 identity theft complaints in 2006. That same year, 1,498 Internet-related fraud complaints from teens aged nineteen and younger were filed with FTC, accounting for 2 percent of the 61,168 complaints in 2006 (FTC 2007b). Another online risk is the constant barrage of unwanted commercial e-mails caused by teens giving their private information to e-marketers (Grant 2006; Liau, Khoo, and Ang 2005). In response to these online risks teens face, parents and privacy advocates have voiced concerns about teen privacy loss. The Pew Internet & American Life Project study discovered that 81 percent of parents believe that teens are not as careful as they should be with disclosing personal information online (Lenhart 2005). The Annenberg Public Policy Center study reported that 74 percent of parents worry that their child gives out personal information through Web sites or chat rooms (Turow and Nir 2000). In the same study, 96 percent of parents agreed that teens older than thirteen years should be required to obtain parental consent before disclosing their information online. However, the current FTC rule under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) does not protect privacy rights of teens aged thirteen to seventeen years, although it regulates e-marketers' data collection on sites that target children younger than thirteen years. Consequently, privacy advocates have contended that the COPPA should be extended to include teens older than thirteen years (Aidman 2000). Given such growing concerns among parents and privacy advocates over teens' privacy, it is important to examine how teens aged thirteen years and older perceive e-marketers' information practices. To date, few academic studies have addressed teens and online privacy-related issues. Studies have examined what factors explain teens' level of privacy concern and how their level of privacy concern has an impact on privacy coping behaviors (Grant 2006; Moscardelli and Divine 2007; Youn 2005). These studies do not, however, explore parental involvement in teen privacy issues and the influences on teens' motivation to safeguard privacy rights. Thus, this study investigates the process by which parental influence shapes teens' attitude toward the protection of privacy online. …