Author(s): Sophie Larsen, Katie Klabacka
Mentor(s): Xinru Page, Kirsten Chapman
Institution BYU
Recent studies have shown mixed outcomes for autistic young adults (YAs) who use social networking sites (SNSs). While SNSs provide social benefits to this population, they also disproportionately experience privacy harms. Our lab aims to mitigate these privacy harms through an education intervention, focusing on autistic YAs between the ages of 18-30 who have substantial support needs. Our primary goals are to develop and teach learning materials that promote privacy-preserving practices and mitigate mental and physical harms among this population. In order to help participants implement better privacy-preserving measures, our lab has developed an educational curriculum that consists of 6 modules, each covering a different aspect of privacy on Facebook and Instagram. The curriculum is taught in weekly 50 minute sessions over the course of 14 weeks. Several educational materials introduce rule-based approaches (RBAs), which are lists of specific criteria that participants can use to determine safe/beneficial decisions in complex situations (such as rejecting/accepting a friend request). Participants take short knowledge tests before and after each module. Pre and post knowledge test results are then compared to determine the efficacy of the modules. There are some preliminary findings from the two years that the curriculum has been taught. We found that active, on-topic participation in class was associated with higher learning outcomes. We also found that participants showed statistically significant learning in the modules that contained RBAs. In response to research findings and feedback from participants, we are modifying two of the less effective modules: Social Media vs. Reality and Misinformation. The new Social Media vs. Reality module discusses FOMO, comparison, and spending excessive time on SNSs. It includes an RBA for addressing negative emotions/physiological responses during or after social media usage. We include physiological responses since many members of this population have difficulty identifying specific emotions but may recognize physiological symptoms. The new Misinformation module discusses how bots, phishing, and deepfakes spread misinformation. It contains an activity to practice identifying bots and an RBA for identifying deepfakes. We are in the process of reviewing these modules with an autism research lab on campus and tweaking the modules based on feedback. The modules will be taught next semester and assessed based on pre/post knowledge tests and participant feedback in class and in one-on-one interviews.