CT-ISG: POCKET: A Technical and Behavioral Concept for Protecting Children's Online Privacy

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This research aims to offer a technically feasible and legally sound solution to the unique protection of children's online privacy, whose trustworthiness displays a strong potential for adoption, a subject long ignored by past research. The technical solutions must be infused with feedback from legal and business professionals, information systems analysts, and potential users in order to improve usability and bolster perceived trustworthiness. This proof-of-concept is named POCKET - Parental Online Consent for Kids' Electronic Transactions. POCKET utilizes a modularized architecture, which is very effective in protecting the information exchanged online while minimizing the user's burden. The tasks of this project include: study parental knowledge of and attitudes toward children sharing information online and document causes of the failure of previous solutions; design a framework for integrating legal, trust, and adoption factors into POCKET; build a prototype that will provide a technical, trustworthy solution to obtaining parental consent and protecting children's privacy; finally test and verify the effectiveness of POCKET. The intellectual merit of this project lies in both the strength of the interdisciplinary project team and the significance of the problem addressed. The team includes a broad range of expertise need to approach the problem from not only a technical but also a social and legal perspective. The PI and others involved all have significant expertise to offer to the project, which is high risk and difficult but also has high potential for return. The project offers new tools that can be used to protect children online as well as new insights into the practices and concerns of parents and others with respect to privacy issues. In addition, there is a potential for new technical results in the area of model-checking security protocols. The broader impacts of the project lie in the potential to increase the online safety of children. In additional the project develops and tests a prototype of a new tool for parents as well as raises the awareness among parents of the serious issues involved. The study involves a diverse population and includes significant community outreach and dissemination. This research provides an opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration, involving parents and children from a wide demographic in terms of gender, ethnicity, degree of internet experience, and advancing the interests of children as an under-represented group.