Career: safety by design: protecting adolescents from online risks

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $461,313 to the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) on September 15, 2025, under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) to develop evidence-based sociotechnical interventions protecting adolescents from online risks. The project will deliver novel research insights into how teenagers experience online hazards, design patterns for safety interventions, high-fidelity prototypes, and real-world applications that promote adolescent self-regulation and leverage existing support networks. The research integrates adolescent developmental psychology with interaction design and computer science to create reusable design frameworks and technologies that address the critical gap between developmental needs and current safety systems, with particular focus on vulnerable youth populations lacking active parental mediation.

The deliverables include foundational theoretical frameworks and reusable design patterns for sociotechnical safety solutions, evidence-based prototype systems evaluated for developmental appropriateness, and dissemination materials targeting platform designers and developers serving teen users. The work employs a social ecological framework of adolescent resilience and utilizes co-design methodologies with adolescents to ensure solutions effectively enable teens to manage online risks more effectively. The project is scheduled for completion by May 31, 2026, and will advance the adolescent online safety literature by closing the gap between how teens developmentally function and the systems designed to protect them.

Abstract

This project will investigate the mechanisms by which a critical GAP in adolescent online safety technologies can be closed by leveraging interaction design as a means to minimize online risks, and thus to optimize the benefits internet-enabled technologies provide to youth. To do this, the work will: (1) develop novel insights as to how teens experience online risks, (2) identify the mechanisms by which teens seek support to cope with these experiences, (3) translate these insights into reusable design patterns for sociotechnical interventions for online safety, (4) work directly with teens to CO-design solutions that promote self-regulation and leverage their support networks, (5) instantiate these designs into high-fidelity prototypes and real-world applications, (6) evaluate whether these solutions are developmentally appropriate in helping adolescents manage online risks more effectively, and (7) disseminate these evidence-based sociotechnical interventions for protecting adolescents from online risks to designers and developers of online platforms that cater to teens. This work serves to protect particularly vulnerable youth populations that are at highest risk of severe harm because they lack active online parental mediation. The research integrates adolescent developmental psychology with interaction design and computer science to create new knowledge, theoretical frameworks, reusable design patterns, and technologies. IT uses a social ecological framework of adolescent resilience to design technologies that help teens self-regulate and leverage their existing support networks in a way that teaches them how to manage online risks more effectively. By doing so, this project makes fundamental contributions to the adolescent online safety literature by: (1) closing the sociotechnical GAP between the unique developmental needs of adolescents and the systems designed to keep teens safe from online risks, and (2) building on the risk and protective factors that have been identified in the literature to design effective and novel sociotechnical interventions to more effectively protect teens from online risks. Further, this novel safety by design approach will empirically contribute to a body of useful knowledge that improves the lives of young people by designing, developing, evaluating, and disseminating evidence-based sociotechnical interventions for adolescent online safety that can be easily translated to practice. This research seeks to achieve a significant paradigm shift towards building more teen-centric sociotechnical solutions that empower teens by treating them as key stakeholders and agents of their own online safety. The work examines, designs, develops, and evaluates innovative sociotechnical design interventions that empower teens to self-regulate their online risk experiences with the help of their support networks. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.