Online Risk Perception and its Effects
Research Methods
Article Reflection
My first article to analyze was Online Risk Perception in Young People and its Effects on Digital Behavior (Ramos-Soler et al., 2018). The researchers hypothesized that most children have low risk perception, and for those who don’t it is because they have more actively involved parents, spend less time online, are less device-dependent, and they experience less risk because their online behavior is safer.
The researchers studied minors in Madrid,
Spain using ad hoc questionnaires. The participants were selected from nine randomly
selected schools from randomly selected fifth, eighth, and eleventh year classes.
Their research led them to break down the sample into seven distinct groups,
each with varying degrees of risk perception and family intervention.
The researchers refuted the hypothesis
that students had a low risk perception. They found that nearly 60 percent had
a high perception of risk while 26.25% had a low perception. The remaining
hypotheses seemed to be supported by the data collected. There was a
relationship between family involvement and risk perception. The level of risk perception was highest when
parents gave at least some instruction and/or exercised some control and
supervision. They also found that when risk perception is higher in the
adolescent, the risk of problem behavior or exposure online decreased.
One thing that really stood out to me was
that the control group of kids were the most tightly controlled kids in the
group, and the vast majority of them were eleven years old. After this point
parental controls and supervision declined, and in three groups it disappeared
almost completely. Though the control group had adequate supervision, they were
not being properly trained to recognize risks on their own. As a parent and
educator, this is scary to me. As adults, we need to be sure to combine some training
to go along with the protective behaviors seen in the control group.
Another thought provoking idea brought out
in this article is that in four of the seven groups kids said they would not
talk to an adult if they were confronted with inappropriate or problem behavior
on the internet. They indicated that the students felt that the advice from adults
was not useful to them. One reason given for this is that they thought the
adults didn’t worry about it. The thought that the students don’t come to an
adult because they think the adults don’t care is alarming. Based on my
experience as a teacher and friend of people with adolescent children, I
believe that most parents do care and they worry about the dangers on the
internet. Many of the parents I have spoken to admit they are not sure what to
do to help keep their kids safe.
One thing this article pointed out was
helping kids be more perceptive of risks would reduce problematic behavior
online. I believe that this is something that could relatively easily be
addressed with a family-school partnership. As I am considering my capstone
project, I definitely would like to do something that will create that
partnership by assisting parents by giving them some information and tools to
help with education at home, which could be supplemented with a risk perception
component at school.
Ramos-Soler,
I., Lopez-Sanchez, C., & Torrecillas-Lacave, T. (2018). Online risk perception in young people and
its effects on digital behavior. Comunicar:
Media Education Research Journal, 26(56), 71-79.
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