Jax State Professor Dr. Arup Ghosh’s Research Receives USEC Test of Time Award

10/23/2026

Research co-authored by Jacksonville State University Associate Professor of Computer Science Dr. Arup Ghosh has received the 2026 USEC Test of Time Award, recognizing the continued relevance and impact of work originally published nearly a decade ago. 

The paper, “Parental Control vs. Teen Self-Regulation: Is There a Middle Ground for Mobile Online Safety?”, was originally published at the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW). The research examines how mobile parental-control applications approach teen online safety and the balance between parental oversight and helping teenagers develop the skills to manage online risks independently. 

The research team analyzed 75 Android applications designed to promote adolescent online safety. They identified 42 distinct features and mapped them to the Teen Online Safety Strategies (TOSS) framework. The findings revealed that 89% of the features focused on parental control, such as monitoring and restricting online activities, while only 11% supported teen self-regulation, including self-monitoring, impulse control, and risk management. 

For Ghosh, the project involved extensive hands-on work examining the applications available at the time. 

“I remember going through app stores, installing the parental-control applications available at the time, and examining each one to understand its functionality. We used a grounded approach to identify and catalog 42 distinct features and map them to the TOSS framework,” Ghosh recalled. “That detailed process helped us understand what these applications offered and where opportunities existed to better support teenagers’ online safety.” 

The TOSS framework highlights the importance of balancing parental guidance with teenagers’ ability to manage online risks independently. Rather than relying only on monitoring and restrictions, the research encourages approaches that help young people develop judgment, resilience, and self-regulation. 

These findings remain important today as families, researchers, technology companies, and policymakers explore ways to make digital environments safer for young people without undermining their privacy and autonomy. 

The paper’s lasting impact highlights the importance of designing technologies that protect young people while helping them develop the skills and confidence to navigate the digital world safely.