[Air-L] New CDT Research report: "More Tools, More Control: Lessons from Young Users on Handling Unwanted Messages Online"

[Dhanaraj Thakur]

Hi all,

We are excited to announce the publication of a new CDT research report 
"More Tools, More Control: Lessons from Young Users on Handling Unwanted 
Messages Online 
<https://cdt.org/insights/more-tools-more-control-lessons-from-young-users-on-handling-unwanted-messages-online/>". 
The project, led by my colleague Michal Luria, presents the perspective 
of teenagers and young adults on the problem of unwanted and harmful 
content in online messaging. Using diary studies and interviews we 
studied the experiences of young people aged 14-21 over a 3 week period 
to understand the nature of unwanted messages they receive and how they 
address them. Our findings suggest that young people already employ 
several strategies for dealing with unwanted content. Indeed, they also 
had several ideas for how social media and other platforms can provide 
better tools to support their efforts at addressing unwanted content, 
which we outline in the report. We argue that as part of broader efforts 
to keep young people safe online, companies should invest more in 
supporting the ability of these users to protect themselves.

You can find the PDF of the full report here 
<https://cdt.org/insights/more-tools-more-control-lessons-from-young-users-on-handling-unwanted-messages-online/>. 
We also have an article in Tech Policy Press 
<https://techpolicy.press/want-to-keep-teens-safe-online-listen-to-them/> 
from Michal Luria and Aliya Bhatia on the relevance of these findings to 
current policy debates about teen safety online.

Please feel free to share and we welcome your feedback.

take care,

Dhanaraj

-- 

*Dhanaraj Thakur* (he/him) | Research Director
Center for Democracy & Technology |*cdt.org <https://cdt.org/>*
*E:* dthakur at cdt.org | *P:* +1 202 407 8849