Exploring parents’ and children's awareness on internet threats in relation to internet safety

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of the study is to explore parents' level of awareness in relation to the threats that children are exposed to when using the internet. Additionally, it explores the parental interest to raise their awareness on internet use and threats, as well as investigating their interest in establishing household environment safety measures in their household and a secure internet system in order to protect their children. Design/methodology/approach -The study employed a mixed method approach where quantitative and qualitative data were collected (Creswell). Questionnaires were used to collect the quantitative data and focus groups were organized for the qualitative data collection. The study's target population consisted of parents in two major cities in Cyprus, Nicosia and Larnaca. Non probability sampling was used to distribute 400 questionnaires to parents. The response rate was 55 percent, since 220 completed questionnaires were returned. The focus groups were organized as soon as the results of the questionnaires were analyzed. Eight focus groups (four focus groups with parents and four focus groups with children) were organized. Findings -The results of the study are grouped in the following categories: internet uses, internet dangers and children, parents' awareness on internet dangers, parents' concerns, parents' experience with internet dangers and productive measures. Originality/value -The study provides practical and scientific implications related to raise parents' and students' awareness on internet safety, explaining the role of the various stakeholders involved.

The Digital Divide among Parents and Their Emerging Adult Children: Intergenerational Accounts of Technologically Assisted Family Communication

“…Nuances in technology use are important to consider, such that some older persons are quite facile with new technology and distinct media use capabilities are also manifested among members of younger generations (Bennett et al 2008;Bennett and Maton 2010;Ivan and Fernandez-Ardevol 2017;Vaterlaus and Tulane 2015). Scholarly debates aside, older and more recent studies reveal that many members of younger generations can utilize technology as an efficient tool, and rely heavily on technology and media to maintain their personal relationships, largely due to the freedom afforded by mobile technology to access information immediately (Hughes and Hans 2001;Ktoridou et al 2012;Malikhao and Servaes 2011;Prensky 2001;Vaterlaus and Tulane 2015). In addition, those born after 1980 are clearly a population that has a very complex relationship with digital media, as they were the first generation to experience immersion in a society of technologically mediated relationships through the presence and active use of home-based, wireless, and mobile technology (Malikhao and Servaes 2011;Palfrey and Gasser 2008).…”

“…Thus, nuanced understandings of intergenerational technological proficiency should not be discounted. However, it does seem clear that digital immigrants face learning hurdles as communication technology rapidly advances and becomes an essential facilitator of intergenerational family communication, while digital natives appear to be historically situated to enjoy both utilitarian and emotional relationships with technology (Hughes and Hans 2001;Kang 2012;Ktoridou et al 2012;Malikhao and Servaes 2011). For the most part, parents in our study are digital immigrants, and the emerging adult children in our study are digital natives.…”

Key challenges to digital financial services in emerging economies: the Indian context

“…Previous research studies argue that customers are very much concerned about their privacy during online transactions (Liao et al, 2011;Meyers et al, 2013;Priya et al, 2018). But, proper understanding of digital technologies will help customers not only address their privacy concerns but also help them to take advantages of the broad range of available digital financial services that can help in the alleviation of such concerns (Ktoridou et al 2012). Thus, digital literacy plays a vital role in understanding digital technologies well and mitigation of the privacy concerns of customers (Meyers et al, 2013).…”

The Importance of Cybersecurity Education in School

“…Use of the internet is not limited to adults, but in this era of technology and multimedia, knowledge of cybersecurity is also important for children. Although Internet has vast potential and benefits for everybody, the exessive use of the Internet maybe harmful as it may lead to cyber risks for example cyber addiction [2], gaming and gambling addiction [3], cybersex [4], pornography [5], and personal information exposure [4], [6], [7].…”