Teens' privacy management on video-sharing social media: the roles of perceived privacy risk and parental mediation
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 16 July 2021
Issue publication date: 18 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how different parental mediation strategies (active versus restrictive) and teen Douyin users' privacy risk perceptions are associated with their privacy management behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey with teen Douyin users (N = 500) was administered in mainland China.
Findings
Perceived privacy risk leads teenagers to implement stricter privacy management strategies. However, different types of parental mediation have different impacts on teens' privacy management behaviors. Discussion-based active mediation is positively correlated with privacy disclosure and privacy boundary linkage, while rule-based restrictive mediation is positively associated with privacy boundary control. In addition, active mediation encourages teens to use their own judgment about privacy risks when deciding how much personal information to disclose and with whom they want to share their information. Conversely, restrictive mediation results in teens making decisions about disclosing private information without taking their own risk assessments into account.
Originality/value
Video-sharing social media platforms like TikTok and Douyin have become a cultural trend among teen social media users. However, loss of privacy is a potentially serious downside of using such platforms. Despite the platforms' popularity among this age group, little is known about the ways teens manage their privacy on such social media platforms. By examining how teens' privacy risk perception and parental intervention shape three different aspects of privacy boundary management (i.e. privacy disclosure, privacy boundary linkage, and privacy boundary control), this study provides a comprehensive understanding of teen Douyin users' privacy management.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: The research was supported by the first author's Tier 1 Grant (2019-T1-002-115) from the Ministry of Education, Singapore
Citation
Kang, H., Shin, W. and Huang, J. (2022), "Teens' privacy management on video-sharing social media: the roles of perceived privacy risk and parental mediation", Internet Research, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 312-334. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-01-2021-0005
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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