Peer-reviewed article
Enhancing Online Safety for Underage Children: Integrating Parental Control and Customization Solution
Sorath Mahar, Shahzad Ahmed Memon, Lachhman Das Dhomeja, Khalil ur Rehman Khoumbati ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines parents' views on their children's social media use and the risks they face online. Researchers found a significant gap between what parents understand about their children's online experiences and what actually happens. The authors propose a new social media platform model with parental controls including content sharing limits, message monitoring, login time management, and customizable advertisements. The study was based on a literature review and preliminary research, but the proposed model has not yet been tested with real users.
Key points
- A significant gap exists between parental awareness and children's actual online experiences
- Many parents lack understanding of potential risks and challenges in digital environments
- Existing child-safe platforms like YouTube Kids focus only on video content and neglect other vulnerabilities
- The proposed model includes features for content sharing control, message control, login/logout timings, and customizable ad preferences
- The model is data-driven but requires future user testing and validation
Limitations
This study presents a proposed model that has not been tested with actual users. The document does not provide evidence of whether the proposed parental control features actually improve child safety or user outcomes in practice.
Abstract
Social media has greatly affected society as we know it today, most especially for teenagers and children under the age of 10, termed as ‘underage children’. This requires a comprehensive understanding of its effects and risks. This study focuses on what parents think about their children’s usage of social media applications. By surveying parents, we aimed to learn more about their beliefs, concerns, and how they manage their children’s online activities and experiences. Our research identified a significant gap between parental awareness and their children’s online experiences. This lack of understanding is concerning because social media platforms are ubiquitous. Many parents lack a thorough understanding of the potential risks and challenges their underage children encounter in this digital environment. Additionally, existing safety measures, even within supposedly child-safe platforms like YouTube Kids, focus only on video content, neglecting potential vulnerabilities in other areas. This highlights the necessity for parental perspectives in shaping safer online spaces for minors. Our Proposed model addresses the current limitations by providing a social media experience with integrated parental controls. The proposed model includes features such as content sharing control, message control, Login/Logout timings, and customizable ad preferences. The model was stimulated by the literature review and a preliminary research study, which adopts a data-driven approach to enhance child safety within the digital landscape. Future research should involve user testing of the proposed model with focused group discussions, along with their validation and analysis.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- A social media platform model with integrated parental controls including content sharing control, message control, login/logout timings, and customizable ad preferences
- Population
- Underage children and their parents (location: Pakistan)
Key finding
Significant gap identified between parental awareness and children's online experiences