Texting, sexting and social networking among Australian youth and the need for cyber safety education
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Digital tools and social networking sites provide scope for a range of forms of cyber expression and social interaction.The prevalence of negative behaviours such as cyberbullying has increased over the past few years, as adolescents take advantage of the anonymity in cyberspace to victimise, marginalise, ridicule and threaten their victims.Cyberbullying, otherwise known as e-bullying, electronic bullying, mobile bullying or online bullying is now a recognised problem in Australian schools and cases have been reported in the USA, Canada and the UK.This paper explores the uptake of social networking in the lives of young people, reviews the literature on studies conducted in Australia on e-bullying behaviour and considers the challenges to schools in developing e-safety measures and programs.Data from a number of Australian studies is presented to illustrate the extent and prevalence of the problem.The findings indicate that instant messaging, mobile phones and social networking sites are contexts where cyberbullying occurs, and that girls are more likely to view cyber aggression more seriously than boys.The literature surveyed show that schools need to develop knowledge of e-safety strategies among staff and students.Recommendations are made on strategies for educating youth in media literacy skills and e-safety in order to curb the incidence and effects of cyberbullying. Uptake of digital tools by youthSocial networking continues to be a "cool new tool," and young people world wide stay connected with networking software, with its capacity to support peer interaction and friendship, combined with its potential for connectivity and friendship building, and its psychological power.With the advent of numerous social networking sites available today the socialisation patterns of young people have changed dramatically as the Internet and mobile devices are used to mediate personal interactions and communication.Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are part of a larger suite of social computing tools that collectively fall under the label of Web 2.0.Extensive research indicates that these technologies are widely embraced by the younger generation, variously labelled Generation Y (Digital Natives and the Net Generation (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005).SMS remains the most popular social messaging utility for adolescents between the ages of 14 -17 (Cross, 2007), and the majority of teenagers now carry a mobile phone.These technologies break down barriers at a number of levels, such as private and public space, learning spaces and social spaces, and informal and formal communication modes.The affordances of social networking sites and mobile phones enable communication among broad circles of contacts, locally and globally, and permit the combination of activities of email, messaging, website creation, diaries, photo albums and music or video uploading and downloading.More than ever before, using social media and the Web means creating as well as receiving content, exchanging photos, resources and files, with the user in control and the capacity to rip, mix and burn media to create new meanings, images and sound bytes that can be distributed to a global audience.Cyber technologies are also used by adolescents to access and exchange information, to communicate and to seek entertainment.Mobile phones and social network sites are media viewed by adolescents as essential and convenient means to connect with, converse and meet new friends.The online friends network (MySpace, Facebook), are the most popular sites for "friending" and it is important to understand how social networking sites operate and what distinguishes them from other social software tools such as blogs, wikis and other
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2707291000