Patterns Of Online Behavior Research Articles

Young people as victims of crime on the internet: A population-based study in Finland

This study investigates cybercrime, which has become a significant phenomenon within the last two decades. Being a victim of fraud, defamation or harassment online concerns, younger age groups who are active Internet users. A population-based cross-sectional survey collected from 15 to 74 year olds in Finland (n = 46,139) is used as data. The first analysis section assesses whether the younger age group (15–24 year olds) is more likely to be exposed to cybercrime than older age groups. The second analysis section delves into what kinds of risk factors are associated with the exposure to Internet crime among young people aged 15–24. Descriptive analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis are used as methods. The results show that young people are more likely to be victims of cybercrime even when other factors were adjusted for. Besides age, other factors including gender, education, economic status, and violent victimization are associated with cybercrime victimization. The analysis conducted on 15–24 year olds shows that participation in online communities and violent victimization were associated with cybercrime victimization. Good offline social networks were a protective factor against cybercrime victimization among females. Young cybercrime victims were more likely to be worried about future victimization. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding both psychosocial risk factors offline and patterns of risky online behavior. The risk of cybercrime victimization is related to the problems that young people may face in the offline everyday life.

Mobile and Internet Communication: Privacy Risks for Youth in Bangladesh

This article looks into the privacy perception and vulnerability among Bangladeshi urban youth using mobile and computing devices. Based on a survey it shows a significant number of the youths are unaware about the concept of privacy in the ‘Digital Age’ and also has little or no idea about possible risks relating to shared voice and data communications. Amid the absence of any clear-cut privacy framework at the national level, this article has found that the level of trust on existing mobile telephony to be significantly higher than the Internet. This research concluded that the long term user experience (or absence of it) in mobile phone and Internet do not have any impact on Bangladeshi youths’ perception on possible privacy related vulnerabilities. Concern over data manipulation has also been identified a major influential factor in deciding youth's online behavioral patterns.

Urban and rural differences

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate urban and rural differences for online activities and e‐payment behavior patterns.Design/methodology/approachThis study applied the MLCA model to investigate Internet usage patterns from 11 online applications among 10,909 Taiwan residents in 25 different regions.FindingsThe results showed that online behavior patterns exhibited regional differences, as the regional segments affected the individual segments of different use patterns. For instance, the urban area comprised a higher proportion of members who were accustomed to internet applications and skilled in online shopping by using a credit card. The rural area made up a higher proportion of members who only occasionally used online services. Moreover, rural region residents used other payment methods (excluding credit cards) more often than urban region residents. As expected, users’ personal characteristics also dictated the online behavior pattern. For instance, people with higher‐level income spent relatively more money for online shopping and often used various internet applications than others.Practical implicationsThe findings herein should help Internet service providers form an applicable guideline for developing service strategies of higher service satisfaction regarding products and users’ needs.Originality/valueThis study implemented a multilevel latent class model to investigate online behavior patterns that exhibited urban and rural differences, with the goal of providing service providers an understanding and mastery of their target users.

Monitoring Student Internet Patterns: Big Brother or Promoting Mental Health?

A study showing that student internet behavior differed significantly for students with high scores on a test of depression is thought to be the first to consider the relationship between internet use and depression that focuses on patterns of online behavior rather than content. Study findings have the potential for use in the human services as a way to assess and/or promote mental health. Although the data were collected anonymously with Institutional Review Board approval and participants' informed consent, objections have been raised suggesting this type of data collection represents “Big Brother” or the monitoring of individuals' behavior without their awareness as portrayed in George Orwell's famous novel, 1984. The importance of this type of research in furthering our understanding of the impact of Internet use on human behavior is emphasized. Additionally, the role of the university is stressed as a location for conducting ethical research which disseminates findings via publication to inform and spur policymakers to develop appropriate guidelines to prevent misuse of new knowledge and technology.

The combined model of influencing on-line consumer behavior

Combining the views from the Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior and Technology Acceptance Model, this study proposes an integrated opinion to construct on-line consuming behavior patterns for travel. The nonlinear fuzzy network model were adopted to test and verify the sample data. The method of convenience sampling was employed and the questionnaires were distributed through e-mail sending, or were brought back by selected consumers, or were filled in on-line by access to the designated website. A total of 550 questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 35.6%. It concluded from the factor loading that among the three independent variables in this study, product marketing attracts customers most in respect to the “Marketing Mix”. The possibility of misunderstanding information is higher in respect to the “Perceived Risk” of information from customers. The close relationship of the family works more effectively for decision making in respect to the “Subjective Norms”. The three latent independent variables of “Marketing Mix”, “Perceived Risk” and “Subjective Norms” are the three key factors that directly or indirectly influence the “Attitude” and the “Behavioral Intention” in this study.

Patterns of online behaviour in the United Kingdom and Japan: Insights based on asynchronous online conversations

This comparative study examines aspects of online behaviour exhibited by participants in online discussion groups in the United Kingdom and Japan. The primary data consists of message board threads gathered from U.K. and Japanese Internet forum sites with the analysis focusing on hyperlinks contained in the forum messages as well as dates and times of posting extracted from the message heads. A 'reading' of hyperlinks is undertaken through consulting N-gram frequencies obtained from each data set, juxtaposed and compared with the help of a coefficient of difference and the chi-square test. Contrasts in Internet surfing patterns, information-gathering preferences, and references to video, audio, pictorial and sexual content are examined; post times are used to compare daily and weekly patterns of posting activity between the two countries. This study also provides an overview of the uses that N-grams have in natural language processing and argues for their analytical potential in sociolinguistic and CMC-related research.

Is Talking Online to Unknown People Always Risky? Distinguishing Online Interaction Styles in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users

We examined the risk of unwanted online sexual solicitations and characteristics associated with four online interaction styles among youth Internet users. The interaction styles took into account the people with whom youth interacted online (people known in person only, unknown people met through face-to-face friends, unknown people met in chatroom, and other places online) and high- and low-risk patterns of online behavior. The aim was to provide a basis for identifying which youth may be most at risk from interacting online with unknown people.

The brave new world of online digital home entertainment

The emergence of widespread broadband home Internet connectivity is leading to a change in patterns of home user online behavior. Innovative networked applications (e.g., online multimedia and gaming) are making their mark. Will the next killer Internet applications be new forms of online digital home entertainment? Can the Internet support a widespread explosion in the use of such applications? In this article we explore potential problems in running interactive multimedia and game applications over existing Internet and home access network infrastructures. We also discuss the issues both network and application developers should consider when designing new Internet entertainment applications such that widespread usage becomes a possibility.

Interaction and interpersonality in online discussion forums

This longitudinal study evaluated the amount and type of interaction and interpersonal content in messages posted by online graduate students in small group asynchronous forums. It also assessed the relationship between interpersonality and interactivity. To achieve this, a new coding scheme was developed to categorize the content of online forums. The results suggest that cultivating interpersonality online leads to increased participation and expands the depth of discussion, thus facilitating online collective knowledge building. Finally, regulating the complexity of interactions and fostering the development of a cohesive group of participants through increased interpersonal exchanges may render more controlled patterns of interactive online behavior and improve collective learning.

Internet dependency: Its impact on online behavioral patterns in E-commerce

Delivering the right Internet service to the right person has been a major challenge to E-commerce strategies. Developers of E-commerce and online services have constantly faced the issue of scarce design guidelines to model their customers' online behavioral patterns. This has called for new research on the characteristics of Internet users so that appropriate E-commerce website design strategies can be developed. This study attempts to investigate the possibility of the non-detrimental effects of Internet dependency and proposes an instrument to measure both positive and negative Internet dependency. The authors further assess the effects of these two types of dependency on several online activities to delineate the characteristics of Internet users. This article is concluded with the managerial implications of the findings and the suggested E-commerce website design guidelines.

Supporting collaborative design groups as design communities

This paper explores computer support for unstructured collaboration. It describes a web-based online environment that was used in conjunction with a graduate-level architectural studio, giving special attention to patterns of online behavior and the perceptions of those who used the environment. Asynchronous collaborative environments like the one studied may alleviate certain problems like evaluation apprehension and production-blocking but will not on their own motivate group contributions in an unstructured setting. It was hypothesized that open participation can be fostered by a sense of community, which in turn at least partially depends on factors intrinsic to the support environment. The environment studied failed to promote open interaction and did not appear to sustain a strong sense of community. Environmental factors thought to have played a role include page structuring, page-naming conventions, and the spatial clustering of text-based exchanges.