Consciousness of undergraduate students in Nigerian universities about security risks of online social networking

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the consciousness of undergraduate students in Nigerian universities about the security risks of online social networking. Data was collected from 336 students using Qualtrics, an online survey tool. To a large extent, 53.4% of the respondents reported concerns about the specific data that other social media users could possess about them due to their participation in social networking. As high as 72.6% reported that they are aware of pretenders in the OSN; they are very vigilant in adding people to their friends’ list and seriously consider security (75.9%) before posting their photos to avoid exploitation. Indices of the security consciousness are not as high. Except for social media experience (p=0.112) and past privacy invasion (p=0.209), the rest of the variables explained the security risk consciousness of the students.