Technological advancements continue to increase online accessibility and the virtual population. As students engage with these advancements, their lives and identities will be on a worldwide platform. The realities of online identities present a challenge for educators to teach students how to manage those online identities. Researchers have studied the after-effects of online identities, but there is a gap in understanding the individual's thought process during the creation of online identities. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis was to understand the perspectives of working high school graduates regarding the creation of online identities. The research questions were designed to elicit recent high school graduates' perceptions or viewpoints about creating online identities. The conceptual framework for this study included social identity theory and computer-mediated communication theory. Data were collected from 9 face-to-face interviews, including the creation of summary sheets, and were analyzed via member checking and extensive manual coding. Eight themes emerged, revealing that online identities were created to support social connections. The participants' responses generated 4 types of online identities: real, desired, enhanced, and deceptive. Participants did not place consideration into the idea that they were creating an identity. Recommendations included an application for educators to model online behavior and to help students manage their online identities. Further studies could include a data gathering tool that uses an anonymous platform. These findings can inform curriculum and expand the landscape of the literature toward the social change goal of helping students grow and thrive in the online world in a safe, effective, and ethical manner.

<p>This thesis deals with the following questions: What do children find negative on the Internet? What counter strategies do they use? How have they developed these strategies? The method used is one-to-one online interviews and the analyses are qualitative in nature. The sample is children in grade 6 of the Swedish compulsory school, aged between 11 and 13. 104 children, 52 girls and 52 boys, from different parts of Sweden were interviewed.</p><p>The media debate seems to display consensus regarding what threats the Internet poses to young people. The conclusion of this thesis is, however, that children’s views of the Internet in many ways differ from the media related adult view. The children of this study do not express a great deal of anxiety about the negative sides of the Internet. They are aware of, and can describe many downsides but these are not present in their everyday use of the Internet. Digging deeper it turns out that many children have in fact well-developed counter strategies. However, these strategies are not conscious in the sense that the children discuss them. Instead, they seem integrated in their online environment. The counter strategies have been developed by the children alone or together with peers. In some, but remarkably few, cases adults have been giving tips or teaching the children strategies. Nevertheless, the study does not paint a picture of naïve children, unable to see actual threats, but of responsible young citizens who are aware of the threats that exist in their online setting – sometimes from personal experience – and have developed methods to avoid such threats.</p>

This thesis deals with the following questions: What do children find negative on the Internet? What counter strategies do they use? How have they developed these strategies? The method used is one-to-one online interviews and the analyses are qualitative in nature. The sample is children in grade 6 of the Swedish compulsory school, aged between 11 and 13. 104 children, 52 girls and 52 boys, from different parts of Sweden were interviewed. The media debate seems to display consensus regarding what threats the Internet poses to young people. The conclusion of this thesis is, however, that children’s views of the Internet in many ways differ from the media related adult view. The children of this study do not express a great deal of anxiety about the negative sides of the Internet. They are aware of, and can describe many downsides but these are not present in their everyday use of the Internet. Digging deeper it turns out that many children have in fact well-developed counter strategies. However, these strategies are not conscious in the sense that the children discuss them. Instead, they seem integrated in their online environment. The counter strategies have been developed by the children alone or together with peers. In some, but remarkably few, cases adults have been giving tips or teaching the children strategies. Nevertheless, the study does not paint a picture of naïve children, unable to see actual threats, but of responsible young citizens who are aware of the threats that exist in their online setting – sometimes from personal experience – and have developed methods to avoid such threats.

The topic of the thesis was proposed by the company X. The purpose of the thesis is to gather an understanding of how online users perceive web tracking and web analytics. The goal of the thesis is to answer the questions regarding online users’ attitude towards web tracking and web analytics and to further study how users' attitude towards web tracking could impact the future of web analytics tools and their features. To be able to understand what online users feel, a survey was conducted to be able to identify how users feel about their online privacy, sharing personal data as well as other types of data that web analytics tools collect. The results from the survey were then analyzed to identify patterns and understand how the different questions  intertwine together. To be able to answer the first research question, “How does web tracking &amp; web analytics affect online users?”, the answers from the survey were used. The material found underneath the “related work” heading was used to support and verify the result of the analysis.  A qualitative research method called grounded theory was partially followed to be able to answer the second research question: “Which common features of web analytics tools could possibly remain in future web analytics tools?”. The results from the first research question were used to be able to form a hypothesis of how the future of web analytics tools may look like. The qualitative research method was adapted to the context of the thesis and therefore some steps were modified or skipped to be able to answer what the future of web analytics tools will look like based on the opinions of the online users'. It was found that the individuals who do not want a tailored experience on the web are also the ones who trust companies/organizations the least with their personal data. They are also the ones who are the most concerned about their privacy. It was also found that these individuals do the least to protect their privacy whereas the ones least concerned about their privacy were the ones who did the most to protect their privacy online. Participants of the survey were mostly aware of GDPR and the majority of online users do not read the terms and conditions when visiting a website. Lastly the question of which feature would remain in the future web analytics tools was answered. The features in the categories visual maps, user behavior and real-time activity are likely to remain. The categories acquisition tracking, individual user behavior and geolocation is likely to be deemed as irrelevant since they do not align with the beliefs of online users regarding privacy.