Exposure to online risks does not necessarily result in harm, but some groups of children prove to be less resilient than others when facing a potentially harmful situation online. The aim of this article is to better understand and explain which children under which social conditions are more likely to be more or less resilient. Children with low self-efficacy and more psychological difficulties are more vulnerable online as they experience stronger negative feelings and are more likely to go offline for a while or simply hope the problem would go away. A higher level of digital literacy is related to the use of online coping strategies aimed at solving the problem and protecting the child from further harm. Girls and younger children are more susceptible to sexual risks. Parental mediation and monitoring do not result in more online resilience. Mediation from peers and teachers has rather ambigous outcomes.

The internet offers adolescents a huge window of opportunities, but these opportunities are not always exempt from risks. Indeed, many young people are nowadays confronted with spam, gruesome or violent images and content including pornography, drugs, racism, and even suicide. We surveyed 815 Flemish 15-to 19-year-olds about the online risks they (may) have been confronted with and on how they cope with these risks. We controlled for digital literacy levels, socio-demographics and personality traits. Interestingly, our research shows that not only adolescents with a high level of internet literacy but also those with lower internet literacy levels, such as youths enrolled in vocational education, tend to be more frequently exposed to online risks. Also worthwhile noting is the fact that a high level of self-confidence positively correlates with exposure to risky online content. In general, adolescents do not consult anybody when it comes to coping with risks and negative experiences online. However, a good parent-child relationship pays off as kids with a good parental relationship encounter aggressive, sexual or value-based content less frequently.

This study investigates how teenagers use social networking sites (SNS) and other online communication applications, to what extent they are exposed to online contact risks related to the use of these online tools and how they cope with these risks. A written survey was administered among 815 Flemish adolescents aged 14-19. The study controls for sociodemographics and psychosocial factors, and it concludes that boys, pupils in technical or vocational education, adolescents living in lower SES families, teens with either low or high self-confidence and those having a bad relationship with their parents are more at-risk.

There is an impressive body of behavioural science research, beginning in the 1950s, which focuses primarily on '[w]hat makes a difference in the lives of children threatened by adversity or burdened by risk' (Masten and Powell, 2003, p 4). Exposure to risks is part of everyday life and potentially contributes to increased ability to cope with threats; however, children's resilience to risks varies, and some cope with adversity better than others (Smith and Carlson, 1997). Resilience, defined as 'positive patterns of adaptation in the context of risk or adversity', is considered one of the most complex and provocative aspects of human development (Masten and Gewirtz, 2006, p 24). Masten and Gewirtz (2006, p 24) define the concept of 'coping' as 'efforts to adapt to stress or other disturbances created by a stressor or adversity'. Interestingly, risk and protective factors can work together to enhance overall resilience (Coleman and Hagell, 2007, p 15). Very few studies focus specifically on resilience to risks in the online world, and also little work has been done on investigating whether the risks encountered offline also extend to the online world. Contextualising online risks: from risk to harmAs children grow older and as their level of digital literacy increases, they are more exposed to all types of online risks (Livingstone et al, 2011). Psychological characteristics are related to the effect of online risks: children with more self-efficacy and more psychological difficulties, who are sensation-seeking, experience more exposure (see Table 16.1).Exposure to risk, however, is not necessarily related to more harm. Despite their higher levels of exposure, older children, children from more affluent homes and children with high self-efficacy are frequently BM221.indd 203

Understanding how children deal with problematic situations online is helpful in developing efficient awareness raising and online resilience building initiatives. In this article, we will discuss and develop typologies for online coping strategies. In a school survey, 2046 Flemish children aged 10-16 were asked about how they (would) respond when confronted with different types of online risks. Using principal component analyses and multi-dimensional scaling, we identified different types of cross-risk and risk-specific coping strategies, and explored which types of coping have similar underlying meanings. The results suggest to distinguish behavioral avoidance tactics from mere passive responses or indifference. Young people tend to perceive online coping strategies along two dimensions: engagement versus disengagement and technical versus non-technical measures. Behavioral avoidance is popular among younger children and is associated with a medium level of active engagement and often combined with communicative approaches. Girls are more communicative and respond more proactively.