Safety.Net: A Pilot Study on a Multi-Risk Internet Prevention Program

Abstract

Many programs exist to prevent bullying and cyberbullying. Nevertheless, despite evidence of the numerous overlapping risks of the Internet, programs that jointly and adequately address large sets of risks are not presently described in the scientific literature. This study’s main objective was to assess the effectiveness of the Safety.net program in a pilot sample. This program prevents eight Internet risks: cyberbullying, sexting, online grooming, cyber dating abuse, problematic Internet use, nomophobia, Internet gaming disorder, and online gambling disorder. The Safety.net program comprises 16 sessions and 4 modules (digital skills, relational risks, dysfunctional risks, and change of attitudes and cognitions). Each session lasts one hour, but the program has a networked instructional design to recall previous content in later sessions. For its assessment, a pre/post-test repeated measures design with a control group and an intervention group was used. The study sample was 165 adolescents between 11 and 14 years old (M = 12.11, SD = 0.89). The intervention group demonstrated improvements compared to the control group concerning online grooming, problematic Internet use, Internet gaming disorder, and nomophobia. These results suggest that the Safety.net program is effective in preventing the increase of most of the assessed risks and that it reduces some of them with a small number of sessions.

Intervention Programs for the Problematic Use of the Internet and Technological Devices: A Systematic Review

“…However, the design proposed by other programs has not only reduced the rates of Internet gambling disorders, but also those of problematic Internet use. For example, the study of Ortega-Barón et al [49] not only proved to be an ideal strategy for primary prevention (avoiding the appearance of problems), but also for secondary prevention (preventing situations from worsening in the cases of adolescents who were already at a certain level of risk) for the target population. These results empirically confirm that such programs must include intervention strategies that consider the individual cognitive factors of adolescents, environmental strategies with their peers, and behavioral strategies that allow them to independently practice the activities they choose.…”

Family and Educational Strategies for Cyberbullying Prevention: A Systematic Review

“…In 2021, Ortega-Barón et al [ 40 ] explored the effectiveness of the Safety.net program, which was implemented in Spain to prevent eight Internet risks, both relational and dysfunctional, among which there is also cyberbullying, in 11–14-year-old adolescents. The program comprises 16 one-hour sessions to address each risk and divided into four modules: digital skills, relational skills, dysfunctional skills, and change of attitudes and cognitions.…”

Associations between Coping Strategies and Cyberhate Involvement: Evidence from Adolescents across Three World Regions

“…The necessity of appropriate coping skills, along with the seriousness of harm from online risks such as cyberbullying and cyberhate to adolescents, has been sufficiently emphasized [ 20 , 29 , 74 ]. However, since cyberhate is a relatively new phenomenon, not many adolescents have received media literacy education on this topic.…”