Students’ Engagement in Risky Online Behaviour: The Comparison of Youth and Secondary Schools’

Abstract

Nowadays adolescents use the Internet very often in their daily life activities what, according to the researchers, causes their engagement in risky online behaviour. Youth school's students may be at greater risks online as they generally come from socially riskier or single-parent families. Thus, the purpose of this study is to find out if there are any differences between youth and secondary schools' students' engagement in risky online behaviours. Research method -cross-sectional survey with a questionnaire, created using a variety of risky online behaviour forms (e.g., communicates with unknown people; visit pornographic sites). The tendency to engage in any risky behaviour participants had to rate on the scale from 1 (never engage) to 6 (always engage). The participants also had to answer some demographical questions about their family, age, and gender. 195 students (105 female and 90 male; mean age -14.8) have participated in the study. Results have shown that youth school's students are more likely than secondary school's students to post photos of age forbidden behaviour and to post rude, offensive comments. Students engagement in risky online behaviour is related to their age and time spent online: older and using the Internet more often students are more likely to engage in risky online behaviours. Thus, older students and students who spend more time on the Internet are more susceptible to online risks despite their social environment. More attention should be paid for youth's risky online behaviour psychological interventions.

Factors Determining Vulnerability on Online Social Networks Among Teenage Girls Attending a Child Day Care Centre

“…The contextual factors identified by the specialists of a CDCC confirm the findings of other studies that adolescents raised in families at social risk are more likely to have a higher probability of exposure to risk on OSN (Notten & Nikken, 2014;Paluckaitė & Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, 2016). The authors of earlier studies (Pociūtė & Krancaitė, 2012;Wolak et al, 2008;Noll et al, 2013) also emphasize that poor culture of relationship in girls' families, the lack of understanding and comfort, painful experiences and dissatisfaction with the quality of their lives are essential factors determining adolescents' careless involvement in OSN and leading to the cases of girls' victimization on OSN.…”

“…Scientific studies (Notten & Nikken, 2014;Paluckaitė & Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, 2016;Pociūtė & Krancaitė, 2012;Wolak et al, 2008;Noll et al, 2013;Rosen, 2007) have identified the significance of the social context for risky involvement of adolescents in OSN: adolescents who are growing in dysfunctional and/or single-parent families often lack social skills; therefore, their participation on OSN is prone to higher risk exposures. Socio-cultural, economic, and educational crisis prevails in social risk families, and child development disorders are determined both by the objective situation in the society and by the subjective experiences of family members and their attitude to the crisis situation (Kovachevikj et al, 2009).…”

Risk Behaviour on the Internet in the Context of Loneliness in Adolescents

“…Risk behaviour on the Internet also includes cyberbullying and real-life meetings with people met in the online environment (Guadix-Gámez, Borrajo a Almendros, 2016). Paluckaitė and Matulaitienė (2016) have divided risk behaviour on the Internet into five basic forms: risky sexual behaviour, communication with strangers, sharing personal information, cyberbullying, and access to age-inappropriate websites.…”

Opportunities of Educating Responsibility in Online Social Networks among Teenage Girls at Children’s Day Care Centers

“…Paauglių pažeidžiamumas interneto socialiniuose tinkluose neatsiejamas nuo socialinio konteksto. Nedarniose ar nepilnose šeimose augantys paaugliai dažnai stokoja socialinių įgūdžių, todėl jų raiškai virtualioje erdvėje būdinga didesnė rizika (Notten ir Nikken, 2014;Paluckaitė ir Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, 2016). Rizikos grupės paaugliai socialinius tinklus vertina kaip būdą užmegzti asmeninius ir intymius ryšius, tačiau neįžvelgia ten slypinčių pavojų (Livingstone ir Helsper, 2008).…”