Zainab Agha

schoolVanderbilt Universitybar_chart#1098 Global Rank

Total Papers

HCI Rank

#1098

Research Areas

Years Active

Recent Publications

Leveraging Affordances as a Lens: A Systematic Review of Social Media Benefits and Risks for Adolescents

Although social media use is ubiquitous among adolescents, research often emphasizes benefits and risks without considering the design-based affordances that may influence these experiences. Affordances enable or constrain user behavior and thus provide a valuable lens for promoting positive online engagement. To this…

CSCW '253rd AuthorReflecting on Methodology

Teens as Co-Researchers: Advocating for Disruptive Change to Engage Youth Meaningfully in Online Safety Research and the Design of Social Media

Academic research is largely an adult endeavor that creates systemic power imbalances when studying teen-centered topics, such as adolescent online safety. To rectify this problem, we engaged seven teens as co-researchers through a year-and-a-half-long Youth Advisory Board (YAB) program to critically assess our resear…

CSCW '253rd AuthorTrust, Safety, and Privacy in Online Communities

Online Safety for All: Sociocultural Insights from a Systematic Review of Youth Online Safety in the Global South

Youth online safety research in HCI has historically centered on perspectives from the Global North, often overlooking the unique particularities and cultural contexts of regions in the Global South. This paper presents a systematic review of 66 youth online safety studies published between 2014 and 2024, specifically…

CSCW '243rd AuthorSession 2g: Identity, Visibility and Care in Online Spaces

Profiling the Offline and Online Risk Experiences of Youth to Develop Targeted Interventions for Online Safety

We conducted a study with 173 adolescents (ages 13-21), who self-reported their offline and online risk experiences and uploaded their Instagram data to our study website to flag private conversations as unsafe. Risk profiles were first created based on the survey data and then compared with the risk-flagged social me…

CSCW '242nd AuthorSession 1c: Care for the Caregivers

Towards a Social Ecological Approach to Supporting Caseworkers in Promoting the Online Safety of Youth in Foster Care

This research examines how caseworkers collaborate with foster families to address adolescent online safety. We interviewed 32 caseworkers who worked with teens (ages 13-17) in foster care within the past 5 years. Using thematic analysis, we found that case managers are most concerned about sexual-related risks that r…

CSCW '242nd AuthorSession 3d: Teens in the Digital Age: Safety, Creativity, and Well-Being

Towards Enforcing Good Digital Citizenship: Identifying Opportunities for Adolescent Online Safety Nudges

With the prevalence of risks encountered by youth online, strength-based approaches such as nudges have been recommended as potential solutions to guide teens toward safer decisions. However, most nudging interventions to date have not been designed to cater to teens� unique needs and online safety concerns. To addres…

CHI '241st AuthorOnline Harassment & Counter-Tools +2

Tricky vs. Transparent: Towards an Ecologically Valid and Safe Approach for Evaluating Online Safety Nudges for Teens

HCI research has been at the forefront of designing interventions for protecting teens online; yet, how can we test and evaluate these solutions without endangering the youth we aim to protect? Towards this goal, we conducted focus groups with 20 teens to inform the design of a social media simulation platform and stu…

CSCW '231st AuthorYouth Perspectives

“Strike at the Root:” Co-designing Real-Time Social Media Interventions for Adolescent Online Risk Prevention

Adolescent online safety researchers have emphasized the importance of moving beyond restrictive and privacy invasive approaches to online safety, towards resilience-based approaches for empowering teens to deal with online risks independently. Unfortunately, many of the existing online safety interventions are focuse…

CSCW '204th AuthorFamily, Children, and Youth

Conducting Risky Research with Teens: Co-designing for the Ethical Treatment and Protection of Adolescents

The methods in which we study the online experiences of adolescents should be evidence-based and informed by youth. This is especially true when studying sensitive topics, such as the online risk behaviors of minors. To do this, we directly engaged 20 adolescents (ages 12-18) in the co-design of two different research…

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