Human-Centered Cybersecurity

Youth Security & Privacy

Many security research efforts have focused on adults' perceptions and practices, leaving gaps in our understanding of youth perceptions and practices.

To help fill this gap, our team explores the online security and privacy perceptions and practices of youth and influencing social factors from three perspectives: youth themselves, parents/guardians, and teachers/educators. Research insights are informing NIST's contributions to the interagency Task Force on Kids Online Health & Safety.

Publications

Influences on Youth Online Privacy and Security

Papers

Youth understandings of online privacy and security: A dyadic study of children and their parents - Olivia Williams, Yee-Yin Choong, & Kerrianne Buchanan. Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (SOUPS) (2023).

'They're not risky' vs 'It can ruin your whole life': How youth/parent dyads differ in their understandings of online risk - Olivia Williams, Kerrianne Buchanan, & Yee-Yin Choong. HCI International (2023).

Challenges to Building Youth's Online Safety Knowledge from a Family Perspective: Results from a Youth/Parent Dyad Study - Olivia Murphy, Yee-Yin Choong, & Kerrianne Buchanan. Workshop on Kids' Online Privacy and Safety (2022).

Investigating Youths' Learning of Online Safety and Privacy from Others: A Discussion of Study Design and Statistical Analysis Considerations - Kerrianne Buchanan, Yee-Yin Choong, and Olivia Murphy. Workshop on Kids' Online Privacy and Safety (2022).

Videos

How can parents encourage their children to use online technology safely and privately? (2023)

Blogs

NIST Researchers Explore Best Practices for Talking to Kids About Online Privacy (2023)

Youth and Parent Passwords

Papers

Parents, passwords, and parenting: How parents think about passwords and are involved in their children's password practices - Yee-Ying Choong, Kerrianne Buchanan, Olivia Williams. HCI International (2023).

"Passwords Keep Me Safe" – Understanding What Children Think about Passwords - Mary Theofanos, Yee-Yin Choong, & Olivia Murphy. USENIX Security Symposium (2021)

“Passwords protect my stuff”— A Study of Children’s Password Practices - Yee-Yin Choong, Mary F. Theofanos, Karen Renaud, & Suzanne Prior. Journal of Cybersecurity (December 2019)

Case Study – Exploring Children’s Password Knowledge and Practices - Yee-Yin Choong, Mary F. Theofanos, Karen Renaud, & Suzanne Prior. Proceedings of the Workshop on Usable Security (USEC) at the Network and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS) Symposium (2019)