Over three years ago I started the research for my PhD (completed on time in October 2007 and awarded in January 2008) entitled "Risk reduction through technological control of personal information". I took a good hard look at the effects of Internet technologies upon groups of individuals who might be considered to be "vulnerable". I considered vulnerability in terms of the effect that technologies created. Two groups of individuals participated in my studies, representatives from "Womens Aid" and teenagers throughout the south west. It is fair to say that our culture considers teenagers to be at risk, there is much activity in our current media, with the BBC reporting on the risks faced to teenagers from paeodphiles.

In an attempt to see through the media hype and spin and to allow young people the freedom to enjoy new technologies to their fullest extent without resorting to a culture of restriction due to fear of risk, my research concentrates on enabling young people. In conjunction with Professor Steven Furnell, head of the school of computing, and Andy Phippen, senior socio-technical lecturer, we were successful in gaining Becta funding to run a one year peer education project. Here we look at the best ways to facilitiate young people being responsible for their own safety, and to encourage their peers to be safe to. More information is here.

I was recently interviewed on Spotlight and Plymouth Sound concerning educating young people on Internet Safety and have been quoted in the Guardian.   I was also invited to Latvia in February 2009 to present to the Insafe foundation session on training trainers in peer education.

Publications

• Atkinson S., Johnson., C., Phippen, AD, (2007), Improving protection mechanisms by understanding online risk, Information Management and Computer Security, 2007, vol. 15, vol. 5
• Wood, R., Atkinson, S., Johnson, C., Phippen, A. (2007) Mobile phones and schools; the development of a taxonomy of risk, In Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare and Higher Education, Canada
• Atkinson, S. (2007), Technology and the risk to personal safety, Safe: The Domestic Abuse Quarterly, Issue 22, Summer 2007
• Atkinson S, Johnson C, Phippen AD, (2007), Limiting Risks To Personal Privacy Using The Semantic Web, In Proceedings of the Third Collaborative Research Symposium on Security, E-Learning, Internet and Networking.
• Atkinson S, Johnson C, Phippen AD, (2007), Personal Privacy Threats: A Taxonomy for Risk Assessment. In Proceedings of Second International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications
• Atkinson S, Johnson C, Phippen AD, (2007), Vulnerable Groups and the Impact of Technology Upon Personal Privacy. In Proceedings of Human Aspects of Information Security and Assurance.
• Atkinson S, Johnson C, Phippen AD, (2007), Protecting Society using the Semantic Web, Invited poster presentation to the House of Commons Reception for Early Stage Researchers, www.setforeurope.org.
• Atkinson S, Jagodzinski P, Johnson C, Phippen AD, (2006), Semantic Web: A Personal Privacy Perspective, Proceedings of The Internet Society II: Advances in Education, Commerce, & Governance conference, (Ed) Morgan, K., Brebbia, C.A, and Spector, J.M. WIT Press, Southampton, 2006
• Atkinson S, Jagodzinski P, Johnson C, Phippen AD, (2006), Personal Privacy: Exploitation or Control through Technology, Proceedings of the Sixth International Network Conference (INC2006), Plymouth, UK, 11-14 July, pp269-276, 2006
• Atkinson, S. (2006), Internet Technology - how safe is it?, Safe: The Domestic Abuse Quarterly, Issue 16, Winter 2006