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Child-friendly Terms of Use:Empowering children through social media
Veronica Donoso
2 December, ICT coalition forum, Brussels
The EMSOC project EMSOC studied social media use in Flanders (Belgium) with a
special focus on how their use and appropriation can affect user empowerment
Focus on children Guidelines for awareness raising campaigns on privacy
literacy Self-regulation in the prevention of (cyber)bullying Participatory policy-making for schools Ketnet use case: Participatory, co-design sessions
Ketnet case study: Empowering children through participation (1)
Goal: convey legal communication in a child-friendly way
Why? So that children can understand ToU, privacy policies, etc. and their implications
How? Give children (and their parents) a voice
in the policy-making process Involving users: Participatory design &
Co-design sessions
Ketnet case study: Empowering children through participation (2)
What?• 2 co-design sessions with children and their
parents
How?• Parents and children worked separately• Top 10 Tips for (child-friendly) Terms of Use• Visualisation of top 10 “rules”• Presentation and discussion• Analysis of tips and expert review of Ketnet
ToU• Elaboration of high-level guidelines
Children`s views
Children`s views
• Children recognise themselves as active users of the platform
• They feel the need to teach other children to behave responsibly on the website => peer-to peer mechanisms
• New generations of ToU should find ways of successfully teaching and guiding children to behave responsibly on the online platforms they employ. oE.g. providing concrete examples of behaviours users
of the platform (do not) approve of.
Parents` views
Parents` views (1)
• Emphasis on protecting their children from third-party (e.g. commercial content) and adult contact/threats (e.g. grooming)
• Children = vulnerable individualso not yet fully aware of the dangerso not fully capable of coping on their own with these risks
• They expect Ketnet to:o Provide tools to educate children regarding online risks and
how to best cope with themo Expect the service provider to offer a platform which is
extremely safe by design.
Parents` views (2)
• Parents expect media literacy and, in particular, e-safety information to be embedded throughout the whole websiteo Increase effectiveness of e-safety approacheso Ensure a real positive impact on children`s behaviouro How?
• Provide contextual e-safety tips• Provide this information at key, relevant moments (e.g. when uploading
a picture or when adding a new friend)• Etc.
• Differentiated access to sections and functionalities depending on age• Additional safety features on chat or other communication features (e.g.
monitoring).
Ketnet`s views
• The service provider struggles to find the right balance between educating children to behave responsibly and safely on the Ketnet website and trying to make clear to users what their (legal) rights and obligations are
• This conflict is evident in the structure (and content) of the current version of the Ketnet Terms of UseoLong list of unrelated general netiquette ruleso Very specific “e-safety” tipso Allowed and forbidden behaviours on the websiteo Legal clauses (legalese)
Recommendations for child-friendly ToU
• Inform children and their parentso When? creating profiles, downloading Apps, etc.
• Distinguish between legal & non-legal information:o “the rules of the game” i.e. the legal aspects (e.g.
copyright issues)
o The “agreement” i.e. the do`s and don'ts governing the use of the service (e.g. Don’t share your password and keep it safe!)
Recommendations for child-friendly ToU
• Inform children and their parentso When? creating profiles, downloading Apps, etc.
“Our agreement”
• Consider children`s needs and their rights• Consider the legal aspects involved and translate this into
a child-friendly language • Easily-accessible to children at all times • In order to encourage children to follow the “agreement”
they should receive positive incentives for their good behaviour on the platform (e.g. access to higher levels in games)
“Rules of the game” (1)
• They should reflect the do`s and don`ts• The timing of the information provision matters
o Illustrate each rule with concrete examples• Limited number of rules. Do not overload children with
unnecessary information• Easy-to-read
o Improve legibility (e.g. using child-appealing typography) o Improve readability (e.g. child-friendly language + avoiding
legalese)
“Rules of the game” (2)
• Attractive and emotionally appealing to children• Engaging so that children feel it is meaningful for them to
follow these rules oNot an external imposition
• Give children a voice in the rule-making process o E.g. provide an 'idea-box' for children to send suggestions
• The rules should be periodically updated o Based on children’s experiences on the platform
Conclusions• “Developing skills for the digital world” => empowerment, transparency,
• “Increasing transparency in the case of children means communicating things differently, but openly, establishing clear boundaries regarding what is allowed on the website and what is not and, above all, relating the legal content as much as possible to children’s worldviews and experiences so that it becomes truly meaningful and engaging. Children are not adults, and therefore when it comes to legal communication, they should not be treated as such.”
(Donoso, Van Mechelen and Verdoodt, 2014)
What`s next? Bring guidelines to a concrete level involving users all
along Implementation of guidelines in websites targeting
children Finding interested potential partners to test guidelines
More info available at: http://emsoc.be/academic-community/
