[论文解读] A System of Care, Not Control: Co-Designing Online Safety and Wellbeing Solutions with Guardians ad Litem for Youth in Child Welfare

Johanna Olesk, Ozioma C. Oguine+3 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 15, 2026

Child Development and Digital Technology被引用 0

一句话总结

这篇论文让 Guardians ad Litem (GALs) 参与一个两部分的工作坊，探讨儿童福利系统中青年人的网络安全，并共同设计以关系关怀、多方利益相关者协作、以及青年自主权高于限制为重点的基于技术的解决方案。

ABSTRACT

Current online safety technologies overly rely on parental mediation and often fail to address the unique challenges faced by youth in the Child Welfare System (CWS). These youth depend on a complex ecosystem of support, including families, caseworkers, and advocates, to safeguard their wellbeing. Within this network, Guardians ad Litem (GALs) play a unique role as court-appointed advocates tasked with ensuring the best interests of youth. Yet little is known about how GALs perceive and support youths' online safety. To address this gap, we conducted a two-part workshop with 10 GALs to explore their perspectives on online safety and collaboratively envision technology-based solutions tailored to the needs of youth in the CWS. Our findings revealed that GALs struggle to support youth with online safety challenges due to limited digital literacy, inconsistency of institutional support, lack of collaboration among stakeholders, and complexity of family dynamics. While GALs recognized the need for some oversight of youth online activities, they emphasized designing systems that support online safety beyond control or restriction by fostering stability, trust, and meaningful interactions, both online and offline. GALs emphasized the importance of developing tools that enable ongoing communication, therapeutic support, and coordination across stakeholders. Proposed design concepts focused on strengthening youth agency and cross-stakeholder collaboration through virtual avatars and mobile apps. This work provides actionable design concepts for strengthening relationships and communication across care network. It also redefines traditional approaches to online safety, advocating for a holistic, multi-stakeholder online safety paradigm for youth in the CWS.

研究动机与目标

• Identify online safety challenges faced by families of youth in the Child Welfare System as observed by GALs.
• Understand the challenges GALs encounter when advocating for youth online safety.
• Co-design technology-based solutions with GALs to promote youth online safety in the CWS.
• Reconceptualize online safety as a relational care and multi-stakeholder responsibility.
• Provide design insights for multi-stakeholder collaboration and trust-based online safety tools.

提出的方法

• Conducted a two-part in-person workshop (content delivery/reflection and co-design) with 10 GALs in August 2024.
• Applied reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2021) to Part I transcripts for RQ1 and RQ2.
• Applied reflexive thematic analysis to Part II transcripts and artifacts for RQ3.
• Used inductive coding to derive themes from transcripts and co-design artifacts.
• Employed a Blue Sky Visioning co-design approach to generate aspirational design concepts.
• Ensured IRB approval and anonymized participant data.

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 RQ1: What online safety challenges do families seek GALs’ support for?
• RQ2 RQ2: What challenges do GALs face when advocating for youth online safety?
• RQ3 RQ3: What technology-based solutions do GALs envision to improve online safety for youth in the CWS?

主要发现

• GALs identify a dual nature of the internet as both essential for connection and a space of risk for youth in care.
• Youth in the CWS often lack digital literacy and supportive resources, and face restricted access that undermines preparedness for online risks.
• Intra-familial power dynamics and placement instability hinder consistent online safety mediation.
• Systemic barriers and fragmented stakeholder communication impede GALs’ advocacy for youth online safety.
• Co-design concepts emphasize trust-based, multi-stakeholder communication and integration of offline/therapeutic support, moving beyond restriction toward relational care.
• The study provides the first empirical GAL perspective on youth online safety in the CWS and advocates for participatory approaches involving nontraditional stakeholders.