Recent News

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski contributed expert guidance to the new Children and Screens Guide for Childhood Development and Media Use: Adolescence (Ages 11–18), a research-based resource designed to help parents and caregivers support adolescents’ well-being, growing autonomy, and healthy relationships with digital media. Wisniewski’s contributions emphasize a developmental approach to online...

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski received the Test of Time Award at the 16th Symposium on Usable Security & Privacy (USEC 2026) for her CSCW 2017 paper, “Parental Control vs. Teen Self-Regulation: Is There a Middle Ground for Mobile Online Safety?” The award recognizes the paper’s enduring impact on usable security and...

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski, along with Dr. Liz Sweigart and Aahil Valliani, co-authored a Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) article, “Pause, Reflect, and Redirect: Helping Youth Make Better Digital Choices.” The article presents the Pause, Reflect, and Redirect (PRR) framework as an alternative to punitive blocking and restriction. Rather than...

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski co-organized the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) Visioning Workshop on “Supporting At-Risk Users Through Responsible Computing,” alongside Katie Siek, Tammy Toscos, Sunny Consolvo, and Kevin Butler. The workshop brought together 49 researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, and civil society to examine how the computing community can better...

Wisniewski Joins ICSI Dr. Pamela Wisniewski has joined the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) as a Principal Research Scientist. She is also the Founder and Director of the Socio-Technical Interaction Research (STIR) Lab and Teenovate. Wisniewski’s interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of social computing, privacy, and adolescent online safety,...

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski joined researchers, advocates, and policymakers at Public Knowledge for a discussion on building a safer and healthier internet for children and teens. The event centered on Public Knowledge’s report, The Kids Aren’t Alright Online: How To Build a Safer, Better Internet for Everyone, which calls for policymaking...

Dr. Pamela Wisniewski has contributed her insights to the latest report published by Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center and Lee Rainie, titled “Being Human in 2035: How Are We Changing in the Age of AI?” The report explores how advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) may reshape fundamental human...

We are thrilled to share that Abdulmalik Alluhidan, Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University, and Dr. Pamela Wisniewski, Director of the Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab, were recently featured in The Conversation for their CSCW 2024 research highlighting how social media design directly shapes the risks and benefits teens experience online. Their...

Congratulations to our postdoctoral scholar, Dr. Renkai Ma, on his new position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati’s School of Information Technology! Renkai will officially begin his faculty role in Fall 2025. Renkai’s research takes a human-centered approach to Trust & Safety (T&S), focusing on three...

Congratulations to Dr. Leena Alghamdi!We are thrilled to share that Leena Alghamdi, a Computer Engineering PhD student in the STIR Lab and also at the University of Central Florida, has successfully defended her dissertation, “Improving smart home access control mechanisms to account for community-based sharing beyond the home.” Her research...

We are thrilled to announce that Sarvech Qadir, a third-year PhD student at Vanderbilt University, has recently earned his Master of Science in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University. His research revolves around adolescent online safety, leveraging Human-Computer Interaction and Machine Learning to foster safer digital environments. His recent publications span...

A senior design team of UCF Computer Science students presented their work on SafeLINC, a mobile app designed to improve suicide safety planning for youth aged 10-24. SafeLINC offers an interactive, secure, and culturally sensitive approach, addressing gaps in existing mobile health (mHealth) apps. Incorporating the six dimensions of the...