Article Review #5

For my fifth and final article analysis, I chose, "Safety in Cyberspace: Adolescents' Safety and Exposure Online" by Fleming, Greentree, Cocotti-Muller, Elias and Morrison. It was in the Youth and Society journal, Volume 38, Number 2, pages 135-154, Published December 2006.

ADOLESCENTS' SAFETY IN CYBERSPACE
Researchers are estimating that not only are youth online at a higher rate than ever, but they have a stronger presence than adults. Youth have access to the Internet at home and at school. It has been estimated that 21 million youth in the US, between the age of 12 and 17, use the Internet. That makes up approximately 87% of that age bracket. Estimates are the same for the same age bracket in Australia. Youth use the Internet for email, chatting, homework, games, music, sports, entertainment, hobbies, health information, and shopping. With youth using the Internet so much, comes a lot of concerns about dangers and their safety. Sexual predators often lurk online and groom potential victims by exposing them to pornography and sexual violence. As well, this exposure can greatly affect the child's development. Suggestions on how to protect youth include: discussion by parents, parental participation, increase of filters, and community education.

PARENTAL SAFETY DISCUSSION AND CONTROL OF INTERNET USE
Parents often regard their kids as the household "computer guru" (Kiesler, Zdaniuk, Lundmark and Kraut, 2000). Because youth know so much, parents often allow for their children to spend extended hours online, often spending more time on the computer now-a-days, than in front of the TV (Kiesler, Zdaniuk, Lundmark and Kraut, 2000). This has lead to implications in regards to parental control over the youth's Internet usage and children's attitudes (feeling they need to be online all the time, engaging in more risky behavior, etc).

With the high rates of online crimes, it is surprising that one study conducted by Turow and Nir in 2000, found that 60% of parents felt that people worry too much about the possibility of their child being victimized through online crimes. Some parents have stated that they have had the conversation about safe online practices, children to disagree that the convo ever took place. Some parents reported that they have installed filters and blockers on their home computer, therefore, the youth are safe.

ONLINE EXPOSURE
Sometimes youth visit pornographic or violent websites by choice. However, this may subject them to unpleasant materials that they were not expecting. Research has suggested that bullying, porn, and violence all have negative effects on youth. They may display violence towards women or peers, sexualized aggression, and may even lead to rape or the belief that they need to rape. Bullying can lead to depression, low self esteem, and even suicidal ideation.

ONLINE SAFETY PRACTICES
Sexual predators often know that the Internet is a place with a high volume of youth to which they can victimize. These predators can groom their victims. Grooming is a way that predators blur the line of appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. The process is gradual, and has an ultimate goal of making the child feel comfortable enough to engage in the inappropriate behaviors (whether it may be to have sex talk, send photographs or even meeting with the predator). The predator is attempting to gain affection, interest and trust of the child. They strive to be a "mentor" to the child. Youth often desire relationships, belongingness, attention, validation and acceptance. Predators know this fact and exploit it. In the grooming process, the predators attempt to normalize the behaviors. Normalizing the sexualized and deviant behaviors means that the child is less likely to tell anyone about the interaction. The grooming path typically follows: chatting, sexual comments, presentation of pornography (in order to desensitize the victim), meeting, gift giving.

HYPOTHESES
Boys will be more exposed to sexual and violent online materials, more so than girls.
Parents who have installed blockers and filters will indicate less online exposure.
Boys will have poorer safety practices than girls.
Younger teens will have poorer online safety practices than older teens.
Those teens who have talked with parents about safety online will have better safety practices.

METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
4 high schools in the Australian Capital Territory.
709 students between 8-10th grades.
17 were eliminated due to missing data, leaving 692 participants.
464 were male and 228 were female.

MEASURES
Self report questionnaire, which consisted of demographic questions (age, sex, access to Internet at home and school).
Main reason for using the Internet: IM, email, chatting, homework, music, videos, games, health, dating, relationships, TV, movies, help seeking, other.
Frequency of Internet usage: how often they use the Internet in an average week
Age group: 13-14 were younger teens, 15-16 were older teens
Parental use of blocks or filters: Yes/No if their parents have installed these programs
Internet safety discussions between parents and teens
Exposure to inappropriate material or behaviors online: how frequently they were exposed to porn, violence, bullying, rude comments, sexual comments, other offensive materials.
Online safety practices

RESULTS
99% of both girls and boys reported having school Internet access
95% of boys and 93% of girls reporting having Internet access at home
The main reason for using the Internet was homework, followed by IM, games, email, music/videos, and TV shows.
52% reported high Internet usage.
19% had parents install filters/blockers.
Only 39% of the older youth have had an Internet safety discussion with their parents.
Both girls and boys had exposure to violent and sexual materials.

DISCUSSION
Many young people were found to being exposed to sexual and violent materials. Boys were significantly more exposed to the inappropriate materials than were girls. Boys were found to be online more than girls, therefore, this leads to greater exposure to materials and behaviors. Explanation may be that boys are more curious, therefore, they are more willing to go to violent and pornographic websites. Approximately 1 in 5 parents had installed some form of blocker or filter on their home computer. However, the usage of these programs could be much higher, as parents often don't tell their children if they install the programs.
There was no difference between boys and girls online safety practices. Younger youth had poorer safety practices than older youth.

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The main reason for analyzing this article is to show the need for education and talk. Studies show that parents think there isn't much of a problem. This shows both parents and youth are naive about online dangers. Youth can be exposed to materials that can be damaging to their development (violent and sexual materials). They can even be exposed to predators who wish to take advantage of them and groom them for their sexualized desires. Predators lurk online and know the things to say to get children's trust. Many theorists, researchers, law enforcement personnel, etc all state that the Internet has become "a predators playground". This reason alone should be enough for parents to want to take action in ensuring their kids never become a victim to these online predators.