Risky Internet Behaviors of Adolescents Who Have Contact with Online Strangers

Dowdell, Elizabeth B.

Monday, 31 October 2011: 10:20 AM

Elizabeth B. Dowdell, PhD, RN
College of Nursing, Villanova University, Villanova, PA

Learning Objective 1: Describe Internet risk behaviors, types of electronic aggression, and the impact on adolescents who have had a negative offline experience.

Learning Objective 2: Describe the nursing policy recommendations, interventions and health promotion therapies used that are specific to the adolescent that have a negative Internet experiences.

Purpose: In today’s world more adolescents are using the Internet as an avenue for social communication, a source of information, and to experiment with risky online behaviors. To study the Internet patterns used in an adolescent population, a study with a developmental theme was undertaken with adolescents in middle and high school grades specifically asking about contact online and offline with person’s unknown (a stranger).

Methods: This exploratory, descriptive study used a survey to identify the usage and characteristics of online youth, solicitation of youth, and risk behaviors. Four hundred and four middle school students (6^th, 7^th, 8^th grades) and 2,077 high school students (9^th, 10^th, 11^th, 12^th grades) were recruited from public and parochial schools located in the Northeast.

Results: Findings from this study indicate that adolescents from both groups are participating in risky online communications, posting personal information, and meeting offline with strangers. Students who communicated online with strangers had higher rates of posting personal information, electronic aggression, and offline meetings. Fourteen percent of middle school (14.6%) communicated with strangers and within this group 64% reported meeting offline with the stranger. Over a third high school students (32% boys and 36% girls) communicated with a stranger with 22.6% of boys and 13.4% of girls reporting something sexual happened at their offline meeting.

Conclusion and Implications: In the diverse and complex health care settings of the twenty-first century nurses are increasingly encountering risk situations defined by the technology. The Internet revolution, while providing an unlimited information exchange and social contact, also widens the door for risky activity in a pediatric adolescent population. Policy recommendations include designing technologies and/or educational programs to identify suspicious online behaviors, strengthening Internet filters for student online protection, and school outreach for students who are harassed, threatened or assaulted from meeting someone offline.

See more of: Adolescent Health Concerns Across the Continuum
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