Safety of Minors on Social Media Websites: Italian Parent Perceptions and Mitigation

Safety of minors is one of the foci of parents and social media companies. Companies strive to design and improve safety policies to combat online abuse involving minors. However, parents play a much more critical role in the online safety of their children. The study explores parents' perceptions of social media risks and their level of awareness about minor safety on these platforms based on qualitative interviews conducted with 25 Italian parents. The results indicate that mothers are keener to use restrictions compared to fathers, and most educated parents display more awareness as well as more trust in institutions and schools, whilst older parents are less likely to use risk mitigation strategies, admitting their lack of ability to approach new technologies. For this reason, more support should be provided by institutions or social media platforms to parents less technologically savvy who do feel left behind with the new technological trends.