A PSYCHO-EDUCATIONAL STRATEGY AS TOOL FOR EDUCATING ADOLESCENTS ON INTERNET SAFETY

This psycho-educational strategy, in the form of a website, was designed to educate adolescents in schools with regard to online safety practices. The study made use of a mixed-method methodology. One hundred and eightythree (183) adolescents completed quantitative questionnaires. Qualitative data was gathered by eight semi-structured adolescent focus groups. After the integration of results, a website that included information on safety education was designed. Six areas of online safety were illustrated and addressed on the website - cyber bullying, pornography, social networking, online gaming, sharing of personal information, as well as plagiarising and stealing content. Adolescents were given the opportunity to explore the website in order to evaluate it as an effective educational tool for promoting online safety. The research reveals that adolescents could benefit from the psycho-educational strategy as it creates awareness and serves an educational purpose in terms of identifying possible harms of the internet. Findings indicate that schools, educators and parents could use the psychoeducational strategy to educate adolescents about internet safety