Adolescent online risk-taking : an experimental analysis of posting behaviour

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate online risk-taking behaviour among adolescents. A total of 189 adolescents were given an online self-report questionnaire containing 20 examples of possible online posts. Half of the participants were presented with an application prior to the questionnaire that provided relevant, in-the-moment information about how their posts might be used and seen by others, and the other half were given an irrelevant Internet facts application. The likelihood of posting online content was assessed based on the type of post (emotionally evocative versus personal information), the nature of the post (public versus private), the gender of the participant (boy, girl), the type of app received (PostFire versus GhostFire), as well as the interaction of these variables. Results showed that while boys and girls were more likely to report that they would post or send content privately than publicly, girls were even more likely than males to report that they would send all types of information privately. Findings indicate that adolescents, particularly girls, are unlikely to discriminate between types of content online when privately messaging with others.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat