Exploring Nudge Designs to Help Adolescent SNS Users Avoid Privacy and Safety Threats

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A nudge is a method to influence individual choices without taking away freedom of choice. We are interested in whether nudges can help adolescents avoid privacy and safety threats on social network services (SNS). We conducted an online survey to compare how 11 different nudge designs influence decisions on 9 scenarios featuring various privacy and safety threats. We collected 29,608 responses from adolescent SNS users (self-claimed high school and university students), and found that nudges can help to educe potentially risk choices. Participants were more likely to avoid potentially risky choices when presented with negative frames (e.g., "90% of users would not share a photo without permission'') than affirmative ones (e.g., "10% of users would''). Social nudges displaying statistics on how likely other people would make potentially risky decisions can have a negative effect in comparison to a nudge with only general privacy and safety suggestions. We conclude by providing design considerations for privacy/safety nudges targeting adolescent SNS users.