twenty-three - Explaining vulnerability to risk and harm

Summary

Introduction

Although the internet brings a wide range of opportunities for online communication, not all of it is positive and it may leave children vulnerable to numerous online hazards. Previous research, as other chapters show, points to encounters with material considered risky and potentially harmful being related to a range of sociodemographic and psychological variables. For example, age correlates with more intensive internet use and with more risky behaviour, and age can also moderate the relationship between internet use and psychological well-being (Shapira et al, 2000). Gender differences in relation to risk are supposed to be strong but unpredictable – in the case of bullying, for example, the findings are inconsistent across studies. Some studies find that boys are more likely than girls to engage in cyberbullying (Katzer et al, 2009); Li (2006) finds that more boys than girls report being cyberbullied; but other research finds no significant gender differences for online bullying (Aricak, 2009).

Results from personality research help to clarify the facets of personality that may produce a predisposition for problematic internet use. Several traits are identified as being associated with problematic internet use, including shyness (Chak and Leung, 2004), (lack of ) self-efficacy (Eastin and LaRose, 2000; LaRose et al, 2001) and sensation-seeking (Lin and Tsai, 2002). There is also a growing body of scientific evidence on the relationship between certain offline and online risks – research related mostly to cases of online and offline bullying rather than seeing sexual material. For example, Ybarra et al (2007) report that 36 per cent of youth harassed online are also bullied at school; Smith et al (2008), in a sample of UK youth, find that 26 per cent of traditional victims of bullying are also bullied online; and Gradinger and colleagues (2009), in an Austrian sample, report an overlap of 12 per cent between online and offline bullying. A study conducted by Erentaite, Bergman and Zukauskiene (2012) addresses a large sample of high school students in Lithuania (n=1,667, 58 per cent girls, aged 15-19, M=16.29, SD=0.95). They consider three forms of traditional bullying – verbal, physical and relational – and seven forms of cyberbullying victimisation, measured at two time points.