Peer-reviewed article
Cybersecurity awareness for children: A systematic literature review
Farzana Quayyum, Daniela S. Cruzes, Letizia Jaccheri ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This systematic literature review examines research on cybersecurity awareness for children, synthesizing findings from 56 peer-reviewed studies. The review identifies cybersecurity risks that children face online, documents approaches and theories used to raise awareness about these risks, and summarizes factors researchers use to evaluate cybersecurity interventions. The work aims to guide future research in this growing field as children's internet access increases.
Key points
- The review analyzed 56 peer-reviewed studies on cybersecurity awareness for children
- It compiled a list of cybersecurity risks identified in the literature
- It documented commonly used approaches and theoretical frameworks for raising cybersecurity awareness
- It identified factors used by researchers to evaluate cybersecurity awareness interventions
Limitations
This is a review of existing literature rather than primary research, so it describes what other studies have found but does not itself test interventions or measure outcomes in a real population. The document does not specify which countries' research is included or provide details on the effectiveness of different awareness approaches.
Abstract
Cybersecurity for children has received much attention and has become a rapidly growing topic due to the increased availability of the internet to children and their consequent exposure to various online risks. This paper aims to summarize the current findings on cybersecurity awareness research for children and help guide future studies. We have performed a systematic literature review on cybersecurity awareness for children, analyzing 56 peer-reviewed studies that report in depth on various cybersecurity risks and awareness-raising approaches. The results of this review include a list of cybersecurity risks for children, a list of commonly used approaches and theories for raising cybersecurity awareness among children, and a list of factors that researchers have considered when evaluating cybersecurity awareness approaches and solutions.