The risks of social networking sites to South Australian high school students

The internet and social networking sites play an integral role in many people's lives today all over the world. However, along with any form of new technology come risks, and with social networking sites the risks of cyberbullying and sexual predation are of concern, particularly to young people. This study uses a mixed methods approach to gain an understanding of the prevalence and perceptions of such risks amongst young people. This was accomplished by having a representative sample of South Australian high schools students enrolled in years 8, 10 and 12 from six different high schools across South Australia to complete a questionnaire. This questionnaire gained information about the prevalence of aforementioned risks, as well as the understanding of these risks. The implications of this study is that educating youth will hopefully minimize the likelihood that they will suffer harm if subjected to the twin intrusions of cyberbullying and sexual predation. For a young person equipped with a better knowledge of the risks of using social networking sites will be potentially less naive and therefore take more care with their online behaviour and interactions.Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters by Research, Flinders University, 2012