Risky Online Behavior Research Articles

THE IMPORTANCE OF CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS FOR CHILDREN

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift to online schooling increased children's vulnerability to cyberattacks and malware. Consequently, cultivating cybersecurity awareness among children is essential. Moreover, engaging with online games and stories can lead children to neglect their studies, underscoring the need for balanced internet usage. This paper highlights the importance of cybersecurity awareness among children, employing a literature review methodology. The results indicate that cybersecurity awareness among children can be effectively enhanced through digital literacy training. Programs should educate children on how to avoid risky behaviors online, including interactions susceptible to phishing, exposure to inappropriate content such as pornography, cyberbullying, identity theft, and privacy breaches. Additionally, children must learn the importance of keeping their passwords secure and private and adopting a cautious approach while playing online games. In conclusion, digital literacy and cybersecurity programs are not only teachable to children but are also crucial for boosting their cybersecurity awareness.

Sharenting and Children's Privacy in the United States: Parenting Style, Practices, and Perspectives on Sharing Young Children's Photos on Social Media

Parents posting photos and other information about children on social media is increasingly common and a recent source of controversy. We investigated characteristics that predict parental sharing behavior by collecting information from 493 parents of young children in the United States on self-reported demographics, social media activity, parenting styles, children's social media engagement, and parental sharing attitudes and behaviors. Our findings indicate that most social media active parents share photos of their children online and feel comfortable doing so without their child's permission. The strongest predictor of parental sharing frequency was general social media posting frequency, suggesting that participants do not strongly differentiate between "regular" photo-sharing activities and parental sharing. Predictors of parental sharing frequency include greater social media engagement, larger social networks with norms encouraging parental sharing, more permissive and confident parenting styles, and greater social media engagement by their children. Contrasting previous research that often highlights benefits of parental sharing, our findings point to a number of risky online behaviors associated with parental sharing not previously uncovered. Implications for children's privacy and early social media exposure are discussed, including future directions for influencing parental sharing attitudes and behaviors.

A Systematic Review of the Education and Awareness Interventions to Prevent Online Child Sexual Abuse.

Online child sexual abuse is highly prevalent in current society, in part, due to how technologically advanced children and adults have become. While much of the focus has been on perpetrator intervention, it is prudent to consider responses safeguarding children from potential perpetrators. Therefore, this review aimed to identify all the available empirical research on the prevention methods linked to education and awareness to determine the approaches' effectiveness, successes, and failures to aid future interventions. Databases were systematically searched for studies published between 2000 to 2020. Nine studies providing different prevention methods for online child sexual abuse were selected. A total sample of n = 672 and a descriptive approach was used for this study. While the interventions seemed to improve knowledge retainment of online safety, there was no significant change for risky online behavior. These findings provide specific suggestions for future interventions, particularly those focusing on risky online behaviors.

Low Self-Control and Cybercrime Victimization: An Examination of Indirect Effects Through Risky Online Behavior

Research has established that individuals lower in self-control are at increased risk of offline criminal victimization due to their proclivity to engage in risky routine activities. While some studies have investigated whether a similar pattern is observed in the online context, additional inquiry into whether the link between low self-control and cybercrime victimization operates indirectly through risky online behavior is warranted given certain measurement and methodological limitations of prior research. Using original data collected on a sample of young adults, we find that the association between low self-control and a variety measure of cybercrime victimization operates entirely and indirectly through a variety measure of risky online behaviors. The implications of this finding for policy and programing are discussed.

Cybercrime Victimization and Problematic Social Media Use: Findings from a Nationally Representative Panel Study

According to criminological research, online environments create new possibilities for criminal activity and deviant behavior. Problematic social media use (PSMU) is a habitual pattern of excessive use of social media platforms. Past research has suggested that PSMU predicts risky online behavior and negative life outcomes, but the relationship between PSMU and cybercrime victimization is not properly understood. In this study, we use the framework of routine activity theory (RAT) and lifestyle-exposure theory (LET) to examine the relationship between PSMU and cybercrime victimization. We analyze how PSMU is linked to cybercrime victimization experiences. We explore how PSMU predicts cybercrime victimization, especially under those risky circumstances that generally increase the probability of victimization. Our data come from nationally representative surveys, collected in Finland in 2017 and 2019. The results of the between-subjects tests show that problematic PSMU correlates relatively strongly with cybercrime victimization. Within-subjects analysis shows that increased PSMU increases the risk of victimization. Overall, the findings indicate that, along with various confounding factors, PSMU has a notable cumulative effect on victimization. The article concludes with a short summary and discussion of the possible avenues for future research on PSMU and cybercrime victimization.

Trends in Internet Safety Education by Healthcare Providers.

IntroductionThe purpose of this study was to explore healthcare provider training, comfort, and provision of internet safety counseling. Prior research has demonstrated increased parental concern regarding the pervasive access to the internet by children, including the potential impacts of risky internet behavior and adverse media exposure.MethodsA self-reported survey was provided to a convenience sample of 31 healthcare providers during a mental health training seminar. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics.ResultsInternet safety counseling, especially regarding risky online behavior, was not a focal point of provider-patient interaction in the sample population. This finding was reinforced with more than half of the respondents indicating that they infrequently or never provide internet safety counseling (n = 17, 56%). While research has placed an emphasis on the importance of discussing the risks of exposure to violence, drugs, and sexually explicit media online, this study found that the topics most often discussed were setting time limits (77%), limiting access to media devices (67%), and supervising internet use (50%). This may be due in part to the fact that most respondents (n = 17, 57%) reported never receiving training on internet safety counseling.ConclusionsOverall, significant deficits were identified in internet safety counseling training for professionals and provision of education for families. These finding were inconsistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations around media use counseling and a point of urgent concern given the increasing time spent on media devices, particularly during the COVID pandemic.

Social-Costs Perspective Impacts of Cybercrime in World-Economy, Country-Wise: Policy-Guidance under Piecemeal Approach

Today’s technology-driven human-society(s) country-wise are counted more than ever before where UAE-society is no exception. Tech-users here compete for comparative time-saving options for marginalizing operating costs. It has resulted in huge data usages, a high number of users & devices, which has attracted criminals for taking advantage, which is called cybercrime. Addressing cybercrime, the UAE, like many countries, is not out of control by-laws. However, laws like cybercrime for its society are not always for absolutely eliminating the crime. Thus, besides cybercrime law in place, UAE needs a piecemeal approach in practice where one department may vary from approaches of other-department. With awareness about risky online behaviors & options, tech-users as defenders are needed to invest their efforts. This study has laid out the foundation of the proposal, Akim’s Model-2021, using the Theory of Consumer Choice & Behaviors and Welfare Analysis. Tech-user’s actual utility-received is the sum of utility-received from awareness & own-effort and utility-received from cybercrime-law. Any changes to services received from joint efforts may risk tech-user, to be a victim. Welfare analysis shows tech user's actions - awareness & own-effort, besides cybercrime-law can create, Net Social-gain, which largely depends on tech user's actions. Tech-user’s economic surplus is greater than government expenses for implementation of cybercrime law in UAE. Net-loss to the UAE is the sum of deadweight loss and net-loss to tech producers for underutilized resources.

Internet Gaming Disorder, Risky Online Behaviour, and Mental Health in Hong Kong Adolescents: The Beneficial Role of Psychological Resilience.

In the present cyber age, Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and risky online behaviour are prevalent, and adolescents are especially vulnerable to such emergent problems. Few studies have explored the protective factors that mitigate harm caused by IGD and various common risky online behaviours. This study examined the prevalence of IGD and risky online behaviour, their hypothesised associations with depressive symptoms, and the beneficial role of psychological resilience as an underlying psychological mechanism. The participants included 1,099 Chinese junior secondary school students (33% boys, mean age = 13.5 years, age range = 10–17 years) who completed a battery of validated self-report questionnaires at their schools. The results revealed that 4% of the participants were at high risk of IGD and 6% were at an overall risk level of IGD. Depressive symptoms were positively associated with IGD and risky online behaviour, and psychological resilience mediated both of these associations. These results imply that clinicians and teachers should incorporate psychological resilience training into intervention approaches to mitigate IGD and risky online behaviour.

Status and Risk Factors of Chinese Teenagers’ Exposure to Cyberbullying

The debate over teenagers’ exposure to cyberbullying has aroused broad public concern, but there are few nationwide empirical studies on teen cyberbullying in China. Based on social cognitive theory, this study analyzes the current state of cyberbullying among Chinese teenagers using a questionnaire survey ( N = 1,538) distributed to teenagers in eastern, central, and western regions of China. The results suggest that 18.1% ( N = 279) of respondents reported having bullied someone and 54.6% ( N = 839) reported having been bullied online, and that age, gender, individual school performance, and risky online behaviors may predict different cyberbullying behaviors. Enhancing teenagers’ awareness of the importance of protecting their personal information is critical, along with implementing social protective measures to contain cyberbullying.

The Revised Version of the Committing and Experiencing Cyber-Violence Scale and Its Relation to Psychosocial Functioning and Online Behavioral Problems

Cyber-violence is the type of online risk behavior inclined to harm others. Development of new forms of cyber-violent behavior leads to the need to revise specific-item measures of cyber-violence periodically. The aim of this research was to explore the psychometric properties of the revised Committing and Experiencing Cyber-Violence Scale: its latent structure, reliability, and descriptive statistics of underlying dimensions, as well as the relation of some known correlates of cyber-violence, like indicators of psychosocial functioning and online behavioral problems, with cyber-violence. Online questionnaires (cyber-violence, depression, anxiety and stress, problematic Internet use, and problematic gaming) were filled out by 1725 adolescents from a convenient sample. Using exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analysis, the questionnaire’s latent structure and contribution of relevant correlates for explaining cyber-violence variance was examined. Results: Exploratory factor analysis showed a five-factor solution with satisfactory reliability: shaming, information manipulation, hate speech, technology abuse, and information sharing. Participants commit and experience cyber-violence rarely, leading to a positive distribution of data in the factors. The Committing and Experiencing Cyber-violence subscales have a large positive correlation. Gender (male), grades, maternal education, depression, anxiety, stress, problematic Internet use, and problematic gaming are positive predictors of experiencing cyber-violence, whereas gender (male), grades, hours spent online on weekdays, depression, anxiety, stress, problematic Internet use, and problematic gaming are positive predictors of committing cyber-violence. Conclusions: Cyber-violence is connected with lower psychosocial functioning and more risky behavior online (problematic Internet use, problematic online gaming).

Online Sexual Victimization among Middle School Students: Prevalence and Association with Online Risk Behaviors

In Europe, 82% of minors use a social network (SN). Although SNs offer opportunities for social interaction, they also involve some risks, such as online sexual victimization (OSV). As many as 39% of teenagers are estimated to be at risk of OSV. The literature suggests that risky online behaviors, such as sexting, indiscriminate expansion of SNs, and intimate and face-to-face relationships with strangers met online, can increase the risk of OSV among adolescents. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of OSV and related risk factors in a sample of early adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on 310 Italian adolescents (12–14 years old) who completed the Juvenile Online Victimization Questionnaire (JOV-Q). Sixty percent of the sample reported at least one form of OSV, with males more at risk than females. Age, gender, and online risk behaviors are predictors of different kinds of OSV. In the whole sample, the most frequent kind of OSV was unwanted exposure to sexual content, followed by sexual pressure, online grooming, and sexual coercion. Sexting and indiscriminate expansion of one’s network increase the likelihood of having been the target of at least 1 OSV in the past year. Early adolescents can face a higher risk of OSV than adolescents, based on known percentages. The study of the prevalence and risk factors in this age group therefore deserves specific attention in order to design programs to prevent and combat OSV.

Criminal law and criminological threats in the Internet during a pandemic

A general description of criminal law and criminological threats on the Internet, which have become particularly common or arose during the pandemic in Ukraine and the world have been analyzed in the scientific paper. It is noted that during this pandemic people began to rely more than ever on computer systems, mobile devices and the Internet for remote working, education, communication, shopping, sharing and receiving information, minimization the influence of the social distancing, etc. Increasing of the number of Internet users and the time spent them online, combined with the feelings of confusion, anxiety and fear has become an enabling environment for criminal activity in the cyber space. The risks associated with the digitalization of health care in Ukraine and abroad have been identified. It is noted, that Interpol has identified three the most common types of cyberattacks at the international level, which affected individuals and legal entities during the pandemic: 1) the functioning of malicious domains; 2) distribution of malicious software; 3) download extortion programs. Phishing and other types of cyber fraud, related to COVID-19, were analyzed. It is emphasized, that the perception of fake information (depending on its content) can lead to the panic spreading among the population, the formation of aggression against certain groups of people and so on. It was determined, that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing of the amount of "screen time" among both adults and children contributed to the intensification of actions aimed at sexual abuse of children on the Internet, cyberbullying, incitement to risky online behavior, distribution of potentially dangerous content. It is stated, that according to experts opinion, the implementation of criminal law and criminological threats on the Internet in 2020 caused losses of more than 1% of world GDP.

The “three M’s” counter-measures to children’s risky online behaviors: mentor, mitigate and monitor

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to scope the field of child-related online harms and to produce a resource pack to communicate all the different dimensions of this domain to teachers and carers.Design/methodology/approachWith children increasingly operating as independent agents online, their teachers and carers need to understand the risks of their new playground and the range of risk management strategies they can deploy. Carers and teachers play a prominent role in applying the three M’s: mentoring the child, mitigating harms using a variety of technologies (where possible) and monitoring the child’s online activities to ensure their cybersecurity and cybersafety. In this space, the core concepts of “cybersafety” and “cybersecurity” are substantively different and this should be acknowledged for the full range of counter-measures to be appreciated. Evidence of core concept conflation emerged, confirming the need for a resource pack to improve comprehension. A carefully crafted resource pack was developed to convey knowledge of risky behaviors for three age groups and mapped to the appropriate “three M’s” to be used as counter-measures.FindingsThe investigation revealed key concept conflation, and then identified a wide range of harms and countermeasures. The resource pack brings clarity to this domain for all stakeholders.Research limitations/implicationsThe number of people who were involved in the empirical investigation was limited to those living in Scotland and Nigeria, but it is unlikely that the situation is different elsewhere because the internet is global and children’s risky behaviors are likely to be similar across the globe.Originality/valueOthers have investigated this domain, but no one, to the authors’ knowledge, has come up with the “Three M’s” formulation and a visualization-based resource pack that can inform educators and carers in terms of actions they can take to address the harms.

PAAUGLIŲ RIZIKINGO ELGESIO INTERNETE VEIKSNIAI

Today’s technological advance and rapid development provide teenagers with a lot of opportunities for learning, free time and self-expression. Main factors encouraging teenagers’ risky behavior online are distinguished into internal and environmental. Internal factors are structured in accordance to the individual level, which distinguishes the significance of age characteristics, personal features and behavior problems in regard to the expression of risky actions on the internet. Environmental influence is an important factor in point of risky actions of teenagers on the internet as well. Environmental factors are structured into the levels of family, peers and school. Quality of family relations, family context and circumstance may become a factor of risky behavior online. Negative influence of peers plays a significant role during the adolescence. Social isolation experienced among peers may have coherence with teenagers’ tendency to the risky behavior online. Psychological and social school aspects, academic achievements and self-realization opportunities through school work are also distinguished as factors of such behavior. Analysis of teenagers’ risky behavior online showed that it is important to look for theoretically grounded and practically checked ways of ensuring teenagers’ safety in virtual reality. KEY WORDS: teenagers, risky behavior online, factors of behavior. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15181/tbb.v66i1.775

Increasing Cybercrime Since the Pandemic: Concerns for Psychiatry

Purpose of ReviewSince the pandemic, the daily activities of many people occur at home. People connect to the Internet for work, school, shopping, entertainment, and doctor visits, including psychiatrists. Concurrently, cybercrime has surged worldwide. This narrative review examines the changing use of technology, societal impacts of the pandemic, how cybercrime is evolving, individual vulnerabilities to cybercrime, and special concerns for those with mental illness.Recent FindingsHuman factors are a central component of cybersecurity as individual behaviors, personality traits, online activities, and attitudes to technology impact vulnerability. Mental illness may increase vulnerability to cybercrime. The risks of cybercrime should be recognized as victims experience long-term psychological and financial consequences. Patients with mental illness may not be aware of the dangers of cybercrime, of risky online behaviors, or the measures to mitigate risk.SummaryTechnology provides powerful tools for psychiatry but technology must be used with the appropriate safety measures. Psychiatrists should be aware of the potential aftermath of cybercrime on mental health, and the increased patient risk since the pandemic, including from online mental health services. As a first step to increase patient awareness of cybercrime, psychiatrists should provide a recommended list of trusted sources that educate consumers on cybersecurity.

Особенности поведения в виртуальной среде подростков с разным уровнем сформированности «образа Я»

The article presents the results of an empirical study, focusing on the association between self-concept clarity, online behavior and self-presentation in adolescence. The study was conducted in the framework of the research project “Digital Portrait of Contemporary Adolescents”, operated by the Center for Inter- disciplinary Research on Contemporary Childhood in Moscow State University of Psychology and Education. The data was collected in February 2020. 52 adolescents, studying in School № 27 in Mitischi (Russia, Moscow Region) took part in the survey. The following methods were used: Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS, J. Campbell); The Presentation of Online Self-Scale (POSS, C. Fullwood); Face- book Intensity Scale (FIS, N.B. Ellison); Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS, S.W. Chen); Online Activity Questionnaire (O.V. Rubtsova, T.A. Poskaklova). Data shows that strategies of adolescents’ interaction and self-presentation in social networks relate to their self-concept clarity. Adolescents with low self-concept clarity tend to experiment in virtual space: they often provide inaccurate information about themselves and create numerous cyber-identities. This group of adolescents is also inclined to risky online behavior and Internet-addiction. All these indicators improve with the increase of self-concept clarity. The data testifies that contemporary adolescents use social networks as platforms for experimenting (e.g. with roles), in the process of which they resolve important age challenges, related to the development of agency and formation of self-concept.

Personality Factors Predicting Disinhibited and Risky Online Behaviors

Abstract. The current study examined how individual differences relate to one’s tendency to feel disinhibited in the online space. We conducted an online study for which we developed two short measures to assess online disinhibition and risky online behaviors. Specifically, we examined the relationship between feelings of anonymity and invisibility in the online environment and personality. Moreover, we hypothesized that feelings of disinhibition in the online realm would be strongly related to engaging in risky behaviors. We examined the relationship between our two measures and the HEXACO six-factor model of personality and three additional individual differences. Results indicated that lower Honesty-Humility, higher Emotionality, and higher stimulating risk-taking are predictors of both online disinhibition and risky online behaviors. Additionally, lower eXtraversion and lower Conscientiousness are predictors of online disinhibition, but not risky online behaviors. Implications for these findings are discussed.

A role for social media? A community-based response to guns, gangs, and violence online.

Social media represents a relatively novel environment for prevention efforts targeting youth gun and gang violence, and associated trauma. The aim of this study is, therefore, to present findings from a novel intervention designed to complement existing, community-based violence prevention efforts. In doing so, we focus on the role of adult empathy in the relationships between youth and the adult credible messengers (CMs) who deliver the program. Guided by the purpose of complementarity, our mixed methods data analyses combine insights gained from CM's quantitative reports of 145 instances of risky online behavior with qualitative analyses of three focus groups addressing their experiences. Results underscore the complexities of social media as a context with the potential to simultaneously contribute to, and serve to prevent, trauma. Results also indicate that empathic concern and perspective taking were important in informing the type of intervention tactics employed by CMs. Relatedly, CM's perspective taking mattered not only in their responses to risky and/or trauma-related content, but also in their identification of some relevant social media posts.

Perilaku Online Beresiko Remaja Hubungannya dengan Kualitas Hidup dan Mediasi Orang Tua

Adolescents in urban area of Indonesia have become the highest internet users. Most of them were social media consumers. The high usage could make them involve in risky online behavior, which included giving personal information and accessing sexual content. The activities could affect to adolescents’ permissiveness about sexuality and interfere with their psychological development. Among the factors associated to risky behavior were parental monitoring and adolescent psychososial condition, but there was not many study in Indonesia that directly see the role of the factors in adolescents’ risky sexual online behavior. Therefore, the study aimed to know wheater adolescents’ quality of life and parental mediation contributed to their risky sexual online behavior. This associative research had included 148 adolescents in Jakarta by accidental sampling technique. We used EU KIDS ONLINE sub parental mediation, online risky activity, risky sexual activity and KIDSCREEN-27 as instrument. The study indicated that parental technical mediation and physical activity and health associated to risky sexual activity as the perpetator. The result should be generalized with caution to adolesecence population in Jakarta as the sample and data were not normally distributed. Any research of the same topic should consider the sample representativeness and social desireability of the risky sexual online behavior scale. Literacy about the safety of technical internet use and interaction needs to be increased.

The Role of Body Image Concerns in Online Sexual Victimization among Female Adolescents: The Mediating Effect of Risky Online Behaviors

Female adolescents are particularly at risk of body image concerns. These individuals tend to make greater use of Social Networks and this could lead adolescents into behaviors that increase the risk of online sexual victimization (OSV). This cross-sectional study seeks to investigate the relation between body image concerns and OSV in a sample of female adolescents (n = 229) and the mediating role of three types of risky online behaviors in this link. Body image concerns predict OSV both directly and indirectly. Two of the three risky online behaviors proved to be mediators of the indirect link, namely: indiscriminate expansion of online network of contacts; and willingness to have relationships with strangers met online. Surprisingly, the third behavior, Sexting and Exhibitionism, was not shown to be a mediating factor between body image concerns and OSV. From our results emerges that adolescent girls with a negative body perception have a higher risk of OSV, and the relation between the two variables can be mediated by some risky online behaviors. It is likely that female adolescents use SNs more and adopt risky online behaviors in order to receive gratification and reassurance about their negative body image.