Abstract
One of the main predictors of being a victim of cyber-aggression is engaging in high-risk behaviours on the internet. The main objective of this research is to analyse the relationship between two types of parental control (restriction and supervision) and engagement in high-risk internet behaviours during adolescence. To that end, and as a secondary objective, we designed and validated the High-risk Internet Behaviours Questionnaire for adolescents, used in this study. We analysed the responses of 946 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 to the High-risk Internet Behaviours Questionnaire and the Questionnaire on Parental Control of Internet Use in Adolescence. The results show that the questionnaire has appropriate metrics of reliability and validity, and show the existence of a statistically significant negative relationship, albeit small, between supervision and engaging in high-risk internet behaviours. We discuss the practical implications of these results.
Highlights
The internet can be a very positive tool for an adolescent
Previous research has shown that these high-risk behaviours include allowing others to upload one’s videos or images to the internet, adding people to social networks who are not known personally, communicating online with strangers, publishing personal information on social networks, meeting up with someone face-to-face who has only previously been known online, giving out one’s telephone number to people that have just been met or are not known well, sending compromising photos of oneself or others via mobile phones or the internet, and exchanging personal information with people only known online (Gómez et al 2017; Liau et al 2005; Mesch 2009; Sasson and Mesch 2017)
There is research which suggests the existence of a positive relationship between parental internet control and engaging in high-risk internet behaviours (Duerager and Livingstone 2012) or being the victim of cyberbullying (Sasson and Mesch 2017). This result was interpreted as indicating that parental control was more likely when the parents knew or suspected that their child was engaging in high-risk behaviours or being on the receiving end of cyberbullying. Faced with these inconsistent results from previous research, the main objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between parental control of internet use and high-risk internet behaviours in a sample of Spanish adolescents
Summary
The internet can be a very positive tool for an adolescent. It may be of great use for learning and sharing knowledge, taking part in social initiatives, and keeping in touch with family and friends.careless internet use can produce certain risks, such as excessive internet use, exposure to potentially harmful content, orbeing the victim of cyber-aggression. The internet can be a very positive tool for an adolescent It may be of great use for learning and sharing knowledge, taking part in social initiatives, and keeping in touch with family and friends. Cyber-aggression refers to those behaviours or omissions through information and communication technologies that is intended to harm or offend (Corcoran et al 2015). These aggressions can take various forms, such as written or verbal cyber-aggression, visual cyber-aggression, online exclusion, and impersonation (Nocentini et al 2010). Certain adolescent behaviours related to mobile phone or internet use can make it easier for people to fall victim to cyber-aggression. Previous research has shown that these high-risk behaviours include allowing others to upload one’s videos or images to the internet, adding people to social networks who are not known personally, communicating online with strangers, publishing personal information on social networks, meeting up with someone face-to-face who has only previously been known online, giving out one’s telephone number to people that have just been met or are not known well, sending compromising photos of oneself or others via mobile phones or the internet, and exchanging personal information with people only known online (Gómez et al 2017; Liau et al 2005; Mesch 2009; Sasson and Mesch 2017)
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