An AI-Based Prevention Program to Protect Youth from Cybergrooming

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Digital Age calls for improvement of information literacy particularly among children and youth who are vulnerable to cybergrooming. Taking an interdisciplinary approach by leveraging our team’s expertise including child and adolescent development, data analytics, and cybersecurity, this study proposes an interactive artificial intelligence (AI)-based preventive simulation program that raises youth knowledge and awareness about the risk of cybergrooming as well as increases resilient self-efficacy in their cybersecurity-relevant skills. The primary purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the simulation program on preventing cybergrooming. More specifically, this study is designed to examine developmental changes in self-efficacy of cybersecurity-relevant skills among youth participants as a function of the preventive simulation program. Further, this study will identify risk and protective factors that explain interindividual differences in the ability of children and youth either to fall victim to advances from a cyber predator or to recognize and deter such threats. The preliminary data will help improve the effectiveness of the preventive simulation program as well as the methods of implementation to large groups of youth. The findings from the proposed study will contribute to making specific recommendations to parents, educators, practitioners, and policy makers for the prevention of cybergrooming.