ICTs opportunities and risks: Effectiveness of a nationwide intervention

Abstract

The Safer Internet Centre project aims to promote initiatives to make the Internet a better and more secure space for youths. Across the nation, schools were involved in activities aimed at raising awareness throughout a full school year. The first goal of this study is to analyze whether the project was effective, based on three aspects: (a) students’ awareness of online risks; (b) students’ perception of the schools’ policy both on ICTs risk prevention and incidents; and (c) cyberbullying involvement. The second aim is related to the evaluation of the moderating role of intervention dosage on the outcomes. Two trials of intervention were carried out, one for each goal. In the first, we involved students from control schools (N = 675) and experimental schools (N = 775). In the second, we compared two experimental groups: Higher (N = 251, online and face-to-face components) and Lower (N = 315, only the online component) dosage of intervention. Using pre/post-intervention design, we found a significant increase over time in the experimental group on the schools’ commitment to preventing and dealing with online risks. While the students in experimental schools felt themselves significantly more aware of online risks, no significant decrease over time was found in the involvement in cyberbullying. Besides, no dosage effect was found, showing that face-to-face component in our project did not have additional benefits. Implications for future implementations are discussed.