Understanding Young People’s Experiences of Cybersecurity

James Nicholson, Julia Terry, Helen Beckett, Pardeep Kumar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
105 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Young people are increasingly becoming responsible for the security of their devices, yet do not appear to have the knowledge to protect themselves online. In this paper, we explore young people’s knowledge of cybersecurity through a series of workshops with secondary school children, and co-design cybersecurity lessons aimed at engaging this demographic. We find that technical demonstrations are an effective way of engaging young people’s curiosity in the subject, and that group activities aimed at exploring the subject are preferred methods. We also find that while knowledgeable about cybersecurity theory (e.g. passwords), their actual behaviours did not reflect best practice. We discuss the role of schools in cybersecurity education and how to best embed this content in the curriculum to maximise the engagement of students, including a focus on teaching about cybersecurity protective tools.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEuroUSEC '21
Subtitle of host publicationEuropean Symposium on Usable Security 2021
Place of PublicationNew York, US
PublisherACM
Pages200-210
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9781450384230
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Oct 2021
EventThe 2021 European Symposium on Usable Security - Online
Duration: 11 Oct 202112 Oct 2021
https://eurousec2021.secuso.org/

Conference

ConferenceThe 2021 European Symposium on Usable Security
Abbreviated titleEuroUSEC 2021
Period11/10/2112/10/21
Internet address

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